ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
This study aims to examine the prominent intellectual challenges facing Muslim adolescents within the digital environment and to identify the factors influencing their susceptibility to ideas and content circulating across digital platforms. Furthermore, it elucidates the role of socialization institutions in building intellectual immunity and presents a proposed framework to protect adolescents while fostering their conscious engagement with the digital sphere. The study is grounded in the premise that the digital environment has become a primary driver in shaping adolescents’ knowledge, attitudes, and identity offering educational and developmental opportunities on one hand, while posing significant challenges on the other. These challenges include religious and intellectual doubts, the destabilization of religious and cultural identity, misinformation, extremism, the cultural and normative influence of digital influencers, and the psychological effects of algorithmic filter bubbles. The findings indicate that an adolescent’s vulnerability to these challenges is tied to a complex interplay of factors, most notably psychological and developmental characteristics, the level of religious and moral foundation, family dynamics, critical thinking skills, digital literacy, usage intensity, and content quality. The study underscores that effective intellectual protection cannot rely solely on prohibition and censorship; rather, it requires an integrated approach combining the roles of the family, school, religious, media, and community institutions in capacity-building. Ultimately, the study presents a conceptual framework centered on "Digital Intellectual Immunity." This framework rests on consolidating a conscious Islamic identity, cultivating critical thinking and information verification, providing safe spaces for intellectual dialogue, promoting media and digital literacy, offering positive digital alternatives, and building an integrated institutional partnership. This enables Muslim adolescents to leverage digital environments while preserving their religious reference points, moral values, and intellectual autonomy.
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