Keeping our kids safe online
Internet safety is a serious issue especially among children and one mobile service provider is doing something about it, writes Nur Zarina Othman
VIA an exhibition, Digi is collaborating with Petrosains Discovery Centre on efforts to create awareness and educate the public on Internet safety among children. As one of its many efforts, Digi has organised an exhibition at the Petrosains Discovery Centre in KLCC.
The exhibition, Digizen, carries a theme of superheroes and is also for parents and the public who want to know more about cyberspace, how it can be a dangerous place for children and ways to address this threat.
CREATING KINDNESS
Understanding the threat that the Internet poses to young children, Digi’s Yellow Heart programme is designed to educate the children and prepare them, along with adults, on what they can expect online.
According to Philip Ling, Digi Telecommunications head of sustainability, cyberbullying is a form of oppression.
“Children tend to keep things to themselves, not knowing that this actually empowers the bullies,” he says.
“We meet children from schools all around the country and tell them not to keep things to themselves when they are bullied online. Yellow Heart is about standing up for each other. By telling others about the bullying they encounter in cyberspace, they are creating witnesses,” he adds.
Ling says what people need first is how to identify a bully. “He or she comes in many types and forms. Cyber-bullying cases require one to not only identify the culprit but also have the courage to report all wrongdoings. However, not only children have this problem, Adults face this problem too.”
What makes cyber-bullying a tricky subject to tackle is that unlike normal bullying, cyber-bullying is not physical. These bullies make the victims feel unworthy by their words and by putting wrong ideas in their head.”
DISCOVERY ACTIVITIES
Together with Petrosains Discovery Centre, Digi Yellow Heart programme hopes that through fun interactive learning, more can be achieved for both children and parents.
“Some adults are unable to identify a cyberbullying case and allow it to happen by saying that children are like that, that it’s normal,” says Ling.
Cyberbullying is not normal, he emphasises, and it needs a lot of awareness to get everyone to understand that it is a form of bullying.
“That is why we came up with the superhero concept,” says Ling.
The exhibition not only educates but also empowers children to stand up for themselves.
There are different interactive activities for the children to play while learning.
One of them is the digital identity game. Its objective is to teach children that in cyberspace, there are a lot of identities.
“Some people troll to make you angry, others type and share a lot of things. Some are social butterflies who befriend everyone online, others are flamers who start arguments. Then there are also guardian angels — those who pretend to be on your side when they are actually waiting for the right time to take advantage of you.
“There are also stalkers and drama queens but the most dangerous of all are the predators.
“Among these predators are older people looking for young girls to exploit,” adds Ling.
The digital identity game thus teaches the children what types of people they can expect out there in cyberspace.
Inside the game is an augmented reality (AR) function that allows the children to learn in an interactive and fun manner.
“They can take photos and then share directly on social media so that they can tell their friends all about these predators and other threats too,” adds Ling.
Another interactive game is an “avoid” challenge where the children test their knowledge on things to avoid online, like sharing inappropriate and suggestive photos, as well as sharing addresses and other security-sensitive information.
There is also an interactive videosharing session on the vulnerabilities children voluntarily share online that make them easy targets.
The other games are a jigsaw game, a find-the-character game and an app game where children can learn sign language as one form of empowerment. “We want to create a safer, kinder Internet,” says Ling.
The first step in making this programme’s target a reality is by getting people to understand the consequences of every online action.
For instance, if you put something online, what will the future consequences be?
The second step is to promote high resiliency. What this means is that if you have been a victim of cyber-bullying and you are categorised as low-resilient, you may just stay in your room, cry and go into depression. But if you have high resiliency, you would know what to do — report the bullying, for instance.
Ling says that according to statistics gathered by the Yellow Heart programme, many suicide cases in Malaysia are the result of cyberbullying.
The statistics are available for viewing at www.digi.my/yellowheart.
The awareness programme also includes digital safety and media literacy. With technology becoming more accessible, Digi believes that digital skills like coding and robotic must be paired with digital safety and media literacy. Media literacy, it believes, can help children identify scams and virus threats.
Currently, Digi is also working with partners like MDEC and MCMC on new programmes that teach children digital threats and prevention.
The objective is to create a safer and kinder Internet. Philip Ling