As the country’s digital literacy programme gains thrust, awareness about digital safety has become more important than ever.
The principal of a top Gurgaon school summoned us minutes before our Internet Safety Students’ Workshop to ask, “What are you going to tell my middle school children, so that they don’t get ideas that were not there before?”
At a progressive school in Noida, the principal interrupted with concern, “By telling them not to put their real names online, we will be asking them to lie!” We explained the logic, “We will tell the children to simply use their first names, not their full names. This way, they will not be identifiable by strangers.” She smiled and nodded.
When we began educating children on Internet Safety back in 2009, the subject was completely neglected by all stakeholders — parents, teachers, students, schools, institutions, corporates and NGOs as well as the government. Five years down the line, things haven’t changed much. There is still an absence of structured instruction in schools, scheduling a one-hour awareness workshop continues to be a herculean challenge and, shockingly, less than 10 per cent of youth are vaguely aware that laws exist to govern cyberspace.