With children becoming an easy prey to cyber criminals, Facebook and the Internet and Mobile Association of India have joined hands to sensitise the student community on the importance of safe browsing .
While the association will take care of the programme’s implementation, the social networking firm will develop the content and training material. It will also be translated into regional languages. Key presentations and events will be streamed live on the Facebook site. In the first phase, 18,000 students in 30 schools and institutions in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad will be targeted. It will be rolled out in other top cities next year .
Educators roped in
“We are targeting students in the age group of 13-17 for the Safe Surfing campaign. Though we have been doing this for the last four years, Facebook is joining us to conduct the programme this year. We have so far covered 6.25 lakh students across the country,” said Subho Ray, President of the mobile association.
Aimed at providing traffic rules on the Web, the campaign will also train educators and non-governmental organisations working for child safety.
“We encourage parents to have conversations about safety and technology early and often, in the same way that they talk to their kids about being safe at school, in the car, on public transportation or playing sport,” said Ankhi Das, Director of Public Policy of Facebook India.