From The Backbench

A quarter of citizen marriages in 2018 involved a non-resident spouse, and 15,000 citizen children were born to foreign mothers between 2009 and 2015, Associate Professor Theseira noted.

These transnational families live in "tremendous uncertainty" because the foreign spouse must continuously apply for the right to stay in Singapore.

They also cannot apply for Housing Board flats together; the citizen spouse is treated as a single.

He asked if citizens married to long-term visit pass holders could qualify as a family when applying for rental flats, and if all foreign spouses married to citizens could be granted such passes and be given a clear, timed pathway to permanent residency.

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NON-CONSTITUENCY MP LEON PERERA

Singaporean gamers spend more time playing electronic games than those in the rest of Asia, said Mr Perera. He said "loot boxes", which users buy to redeem a random in-game item, are increasingly seen as a form of gambling, and the sale of virtual items for real money - microtransactions - is also on the rise.

He noted that Belgium has banned the purchase of loot boxes using real money and the British National Health Service has warned that loot boxes "set kids up for addiction".

Singapore, he said, ought to consider regulations to limit access to microtransaction-driven loot boxes by youth, so as to prevent habituation to addictive gambling-like behaviour among young gamers.

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PATRICK TAY (West Coast GRC)

Mr Tay suggested that the Home Affairs Ministry recruit SGSecure ambassadors at every Housing Board block and every workplace.

These ambassadors can help spread the "SGSecure message" and be equipped with first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills, as well as be trained in the use of automated external defibrillators, he said.

"In the event of a terrorist attack, and especially the day after, these ambassadors can also help to handle the community or workplace response, as well as to ensure that the community is able to deal with emerging threats to safety and security."

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YEE CHIA HSING (Chua Chu Kang GRC)

Mr Yee said illegal moneylenders and betting syndicates are increasingly finding ways to bypass measures to curtail spam calls and text messages.

Some use overseas numbers to send WhatsApp messages containing a local number to contact and others send texts from masked numbers, he noted.

The i-Witness platform for reporting such spam messages is "rather tedious" and requires a written description of the crime, which could discourage reporting, he said. He suggested that the authorities set up a designated number where the public can report spam messages by submitting a screenshot.