Boosting cyber safety with superheroes

Digi pairs campaign with cartoon series to enable students to better understand bullying

PETALING JAYA: Digi’s CyberSAFE campaign is back for the seventh year and this time it will be flying high with the help of superhero-inspired cartoon characters.

Digi has paired CyberSAFE with a web cartoon series, Yellow Heart, which aims to boost awareness on the importance of cyber security and private information amongst students.

Surveys from previous CyberSAFE campaigns have shown that more children are acknowledging the problem of bullying by admitting they are victims, said Digi head of sustainability Philip Ling.

However, the same surveys also show that a considerable number of children don’t completely understand what bullying is.

“We found that social media keeps mutating the issue (of bullying) into different forms. That’s why we need to continuously adapt our strategies,” he said.

One such adaptation is the introduction of the Yellow Heart series and its accompanying competition, which aims to enable students to better understand bullying situations and boost awareness on cyber security and private information.

The videos in the cyber series feature Avengers-inspired superheroes, made by local artist Cartoon Hooligans, who experience and combat situations in the pursuit of cyber safety.

One of the CyberSAFE campaign’s main goals is to empower students to become their own cyber ambassadors, which is why Ling’s team worked to use pop culture and humour instead of scare tactics to reach out to the youth.

“Students are more likely to advocate for and champion something they understand and enjoy,” he said.

It was very important to Digi that participants felt like their own heroes – to do that, it created the character “Digizen”, which is the character participants will assume in the course of the competition, which is divided into School and Individual categories.

To participate, students need to log on to Digi’s Yellow Heart CyberSAFE in Schools competition website, watch the five campaign videos on their Power Up! page, then participate in the Digizen challenges.

Participants in the School category may stand a chance to win a new projector, while 25 students from the Individual category will win a waterproof charging bag and signed certificates from Google and Digi.

Ling hopes that more schools will participate in the campaign and competition, because it will mean more students are aware of the dangers lurking online.

“Previous participants have said that their parents aren’t worried about the issue of digital safety, so we hope to identify the difficulties in getting children to engage with their families.

“But the schools play a big role too.

“Getting their students to participate will mean there are more people to advocate for the cause,” he said.

As part of its continuing efforts to make a stand against bullying, Digi also collaborated with R.AGE on nationwide kindness campaign, #StandTogether, earlier this year.

*The deadline for the Yellow Heart competition ends on Sept 31. For more information on how to participate, log on to cybersafeinschools.my