(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Irfan Bukhari / The Peninsula
The Ministry of Transport and Communications has advised parents to keep an eye on their kids' increased online activities during summer vacations to protect them from potential accidents and other untoward incidents.
To help parents and teachers keep children safe online, the MOTC had also launched safespace.qa, a website filled with valuable information and resources on cyber safety.
'Summer vacation could mean plenty of extra time online for your children! Teach them to become good digital citizens, the Ministry advised parents in a post shared on its social media page under the Ministry's #secure4safety campaign.
Sharing the data of children using Internet in Qatar, the Ministry says that 85 percent of our children aged 9-18 use the Internet. 'Parents must teach their children more about online risks to help them stay safe.
The Ministry has also advised parents to pay attention to the online environments their children use, appreciate their participation in online communities and show interest in their friends. 'Also, try to react constructively when they encounter inappropriate material and make it a teachable moment, the Ministry has advised in another post.
An article on the Ministry's website titled 'Protecting Qatar's children in cyberspace, says that the Internet offers remarkable benefits to adults and children who can use online resources to boost school performance, expand learning, become familiar with other cultures, and maintain a network of acquaintances around the world.
'But for all the opportunities on the Internet to help children soar, personally and scholastically, online dangers abound. Strangers, pretending to be someone else can communicate with children. Unsolicited email — spam — about websites with sexually explicit material can arrive in email inboxes. Requests for personal information for contests or surveys can be used in unauthorised ways.
Cyberbullying — intimidating, frightening, or threatening texts or emails sent to children — seems to be increasing. And countless easily accessed websites and chat rooms are filled with detailed information on extreme, vulgar, bigoted, and violent activities, it adds.
Protecting children, the article says, on the Internet is both an individual and a community responsibility. Everyone who cares about young people must play a role in keeping them safe — parents, teachers, family, and friends.
Under its ongoing #secure4safety campaign, the Ministry of Transport and Communications has recently revealed in another post shared on its Facebook account that fewer than 10% youth in Qatar have reported being bullied online. '18 percent youth report being exposed to inappropriate content while 42% reported receiving friend requests from unknown people, the Ministry said in a post titled 'Online Social Networking Risks.
To protect residents from possible cyber threats particularly 'digital identity theft cases, the Ministry of Transport and Communication's campaign #secure4safety is a laudable effort to create awareness among people to avoid cyber threats.
A few months back, Lieutenant-Colonel Ali Hassan Al Kubaisi, Head of Economic Crimes Combating Section at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ministry of Interior, had also said that the modes of cyber-crimes were constantly changing with the advancement of technology and cyber-criminals were altering the shape of their crimes. He had said that fraud and blackmail were considered the most dangerous cyber crimes.
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