Creating safer cyberspace for children
KUALA LUMPUR: Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (Digi) together with Petrosains, The Discovery Centre (Petrosains) launched Digi’s Digital City @ Petrosains, an exhibit built on the basis of interactive edutainment to educate and engage children on positive digital behaviours and create awareness towards various Internet risks including cyberbullying and cyber-grooming.
Digi has been actively advocating Internet safety through its Digi CyberSAFETM initiative focusing on schoolchildren, parents and teachers.
In the course of these six years, Digi had collaborated with various partners to carry out a holistic digital citizenship programme in ensuring a safer online environment for the children.
Albern Murty, Digi’s chief executive officer said: “This collaboration with Petrosains is one of the examples on how Digi continuously innovates new ways of engaging the target audience with the help of partners, who share the same beliefs and values as us in ensuring that our children are able to develop positive lifelong digital behaviours. It is part of Digi’s Empower Societies initiative, which we feel is key to our business in helping customers get the full benefit of being connected.
“As we enable Internet for more people in Malaysia, Digi has the responsibility to ensure that it is safe especially for our children. Being forward looking and proactive when it comes to providing a safer Internet is part of our journey to being our customer’s favourite partner in their digital lives,” he added.
Malaysia has over 20.1 million active Internet users, with 16.8 million active on social media. With the rise of Internet usage in this country, the risks of Internet abuse from cyberbullying to cyber-grooming becomes more prominent.
The chief executive officer of Petrosains, Tengku Nasariah Tengku Syed Ibrahim said during the event: “We are very grateful to Digi Telecommunications for the opportunity given to Petrosains to be part of the Digi CyberSAFETM program through the hosting of the Digi’s Digital City exhibition here at Petrosains.
“Through this very important exhibition, we are able to address and present to our visitors a very current and relevant social issue important to society and one which deals with our main target audience - young children between the ages of 10 to 15.”
She added: “It is our joint responsibility as adults to help children become better digital citizens who are more resilient to online risks, and who are more responsible in online conduct.
“This exhibition which is primarily oriented towards young children helps us contribute to society in a relevant and responsive way while providing our visitors with fresh offerings and providing a visit cum learning experience on science and technology education in cyber safety.”
According to Philip Ling, principal for Digi CyberSAFETM, Malaysian schoolchildren are vulnerable and easily exposed to online risks.
“The findings of Digi CyberSAFETM National Survey 2015 involving 18,000 schoolchildren across Malaysia showed that most children disclosed that they were very uncomfortable with cyberbullying, with 37% of the schoolchildren admitting to being bullied online.
Many children also said they were uncomfortable with seeing sexual images on the Internet with one in 10 schoolchildren having been asked to upload intimate photos of videos of themselves on the Internet.
One out of four schoolchildren had admitted that he or she would consider meeting a person whom they had first made contact through the Internet.
“The Internet is fast becoming ubiquitous in our younger generation everyday lives, where it is almost a certainty that they will, in one way or another, face multiple types of cyber risks or even unknowingly become a victim.
“And what is more worrying is that more than half of these children do not consult their parents when they encounter these difficult situations.
“All the key highlights at Digi’s Digital City @ Petrosains showcase were built based on these findings, where we are certain on the urgent need to ensure that all our children are digitally resilient to these growing risks,” said Philip.
One of Digi’s Digital City threepart showcases include taking its visitors through a digital journey that simulates different types of digital risks such as cyberbullying, and how to overcome these encounter on various social media platforms.
Visitors will also enjoy the interactive games that allow children to play different characters and persons within the game, enabling them to become more mindful of their actions. Young visitors will learn to safeguard themselves through proper etiquettes and privacy protection when navigating the online ecosystem. At the end of the experience, the children are encouraged to make a digital citizenship pledge, actively contributing towards creating a positive, safe and responsible future digital space.
Parents and teachers who are looking for new ways to educate their children and students on Internet safety can head to Suria KLCC today and learn more about the Digi’s Digital City exhibit.
The showcase in Petrosains was open to the public since November 2016.
Some of the other collaborations that Digi has undertaken and will continue to work side by side with our partners includes Parental Control solutions with MCMC, a nationwide roadshow on cybergrooming with UNICEF, R.AGE, Women:girls and PDRM, as well as teacher training programmes with CyberSecurity Malaysia.
Other partners that we work closely with include Childline, Generasi Gemilang and Protect and Save the Children.
Learn more about Digi’s CyberSAFE initiative by visiting https://digi.cybersafe.my/