Child Safety Campaign workshops held for parents

Sharjah: To increase their awareness about the multitude of cyber threats their children face each time they go online, 350 parents across Sharjah underwent a series of training workshops designed by the Child Safety Campaign.

The subsidiary of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs organised the workshops as part of its third edition in collaboration with the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, which brought together a group of expert instructors from the Khalifa Empowerment Programme – UAE, Sharjah Police and Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services. The instructors taught the 350 participating Sharjah Government employees ways to detect potential internet threats to their children and how to effectively safeguard them.

Hanadi Saleh Al Yafei, director at the Supreme Council for Family Affairs and head of the organising committee of the campaign, said: “We adopted a comprehensive strategy to promote community awareness about the safe use of digital technology by children and young people and increase the chances of protecting them against cyber threats while using the internet.”

Held under the theme ‘Social Engineering … Colours of Deception’, the workshops were organised across multiple locations in Sharjah, including the Sharjah Ladies Club branches, Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services, Sharjah Municipality, the Department of Family Development Centres, Districts and Villages Affairs Department, and Wasit Suburb Council.

Mohammad Gayath, executive director of Electronic Safety Affairs at TRA, said: “According to international studies, children spend exceptionally long hours using digital devices like smartphones, tablets and laptops. And although internet usage benefits children and young adults in many ways, giving them access to a world of information in a matter of seconds and enriching their minds with information, it also poses serious risks and challenges to their cyber safety, particularly cybercrimes.”

The workshops showcased the innovative ways in which cyber criminals earn children’s trust online, and eventually trap them into sharing private information, including last names, home address, school details, and more on social media platforms, which is then abused by these hackers in the most unassuming ways.

These workshops come as part of the third edition of the Child Safety Campaign, which was launched in March 2017 under the slogan ‘Child Safety in Cyberspace’.