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Sharjah launches child cyber safety initiatives

Sharjah - The over-reliance on smart devices allows children unlimited access in some instances to an unknown virtual world.

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Two major cyber safety initiatives aimed at children have been launched in Sharjah.
While Sharjah Police kicked off a new campaign titled 'Be cautious, they will not tempt you', a research to gauge students' awareness of cyber safety was launched by the Child Safety Campaign (CSC), a subsidiary of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA).
The Sharjah Police campaign intends to warn society members about believing and responding to the delusional demands and emails of fraudsters.
The campaign is part of the Ministry of Interior (MoI)'s vision to ensure safety and security of the public from online fraudulent activities.
Colonel Arif Hassan Hudaib, director of media and public relations at the Sharjah Police, said the campaign targets university students as they are the major victims of electronic embezzlement as they spent a lot of time on social media.
Captain Mohsen Ahmed, director of the electronic scams department at the Sharjah Police, said: "Awareness brochures will be distributed in three languages - Arabic, English and Urdu - offering advice and tips about the importance of safety while using the Internet. We also urged people not to send their photos to strangers and not use Internet camera to take selfies.
Capt Ahmed said the cybercrimes section receives complaints through an exclusive email techcrimes@shjpolice.gov.ae, or through landline 065943228.
Colonel Ibrahim Mussabah Al Ajel, director of the criminal investigation department of the Sharjah Police, urged parents to talk to their children about using the Internet and social media safely. "They should not talk to strangers, exchange photos or pay money to the fraudsters who blackmail them. Also, they should report the matter to the officials immediately."

Samples collected

As part of the CSC campaign, a sample size of 6,000 students from public and private schools has been selected by the research committee from across Sharjah. The preliminary survey seeks to gauge each student's knowledge of cyber security and find out how equipped they are to handle cyber threats, which are often unassuming even for adults.
Hanadi Saleh Al Yafei, department director at the SCFA and head of the organising committee of CSC, said: "More and more children use the Internet today; sometimes even before they begin going to school. The over-reliance on smart devices allows children unlimited access in some instances to an unknown virtual world, where they are at risk of cyber-attacks, cybercrimes, inappropriate content, and more, without the proper tools to navigate the web safely."
The CSC is conducting a study for students for the second time and after completing the first phase of the study, the campaign will implement a series of activities, workshops, programmes, and launch awareness videos on social media over the course of three months for the targeted survey population.
afkarali@khaleejtimes.com