An online meet of adolescents and young people was organised by child rights observatory and UNICEF to mark Safer Internet Day. Around 250 children from 25 districts had joined online and who also interacted with experts asking questions on their queries on use of social media, photographs, fraud calls etc.
At the meeting, Nirmal Buch, President Child Rights Observatory said that it is important that we focus on the challenge which is changing and needs attention as adolescents and young people of child rights observatory network have raised this issue a number of times. Speaking on the theme of the issue Jitendar Singh, Superintendent of Police, Cyber Cell, Indore, spoke on the theme of online abuse and challenges on the internet for kids and teenagers.
He said that online abuse is normally categorized in three areas of cyber bullying, cyber grooming and cyber gaming. Types of cyber crime, hacking, phishing, identity theft, impersonation, violation of privacy. obscenity, and child pornography.
He gave important precautionary tips for children and young people which are as follows - Use strong passwords/ do not share screen locks/ Pattern locks, Don’t click on unknown links coming through sms/ email/ message Don’t accept stranger’s friend request, Do not share your personal info on social media, Lock your photos and other content, Keep your privacy settings updated, Use two factor authentication, Do not download untrusted apps, Do not shop on untrusted e commerce websites, Use kids oriented search engines like kiddle/ google scholar/ youtube kids, Use of parental control software/ Use of Antivirus / Anti Malware/ Anti spyware, You can register your cyber crime complaints on www.cybercrime.gov.in, Speaking at the event, Anil Gulati, Communication Specialist, UNICEF, MP said that 'It is important that we engage young people and adolescents in this process of learning on internet safety, and need to advocate it together to build safer internet for children and young people.' P J Lolichen, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF, Madhya Pradesh added that It is critical for the Department of School Education and Higher Education to integrate cyber safety education into the syllabus.
We need to continuously empower children and young people to use the internet positively, for their development needs. Raghuraj Singh, member Child Rights Observatory, MP started the meeting, which had participation of members from media, parents and NGOs as well.
Meanwhile, in a statement Margaret Gwada, Chief, UNICEF, Madhya Pradesh, said together for a better internet, is the theme of this year Safer Internet Day. This is particularly pertinent for children and young people, who not only have to tap into the internet for opportunities, knowledge, skills but they equally face grave online and offline risk.
Children and young people must be taught how to keep themselves informed, engaged and safe online, in which Governments, Internet players, parents, teachers, CSOs, everyone has a stronger role for creating and maintaining the internet safer for children. It is our accountability to protect children and young people. While we have seen good progress, in the ‘era of clicks’, we need more collective and deliberate efforts to make the internet a safe place for children and young people.