Guidelines on protecting children from online threats
Recently, a non-profit organization named ‘Child Rights and You’ has done a study on ‘Online Safety and Internet Addiction’.
Under this study, the findings of a study conducted on the protection of children from ‘online threats’ have been released.
It has been highlighted that a large number of adolescents in the age group of 13 to 18 years have been observed to be addicted to the Internet.
Key findings of the study
- Of those studied, 48 percent admitted to having some level of Internet addiction. About 10 percent of these people reported that they had been a victim of cyber-bullying.
- Children who spend more time on the Internet for education and other communication purposes become more vulnerable to a variety of risks. These risks specifically include online sexual exploitation, online harassment & cyber-exploitation, and many other privacy threats.
Recommendations in the study:
- Children should be made aware and their capacity should be built to keep them safe while using the Internet.
- Internet security rules should be added to the curriculum.
- There should be active participation of the parents and caregivers of the children. There should be effective surveillance without policing.
- Existing cyber laws should be reviewed. Also, they should be amended to make them child centric.
- Children’s privacy and their digital activities must be protected.
- Earlier, the World Health Organization classified digital and video gaming addiction as a mental health disorder.
Source – The Hindu
