Child Safety in Cyberspace

‘Child Safety in Cyberspace’ is a project launched by the Child Safety Department, an affiliate of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah to raise awareness on Internet and social media safety for children. The project targets children, parents, educators, caregivers, and experts, and focuses on the important role of community organizations, not just parents, in ensuring a safe and nurturing digital environment for children.

The project started with a series of 300 educational workshops for children, parents and trainers in different areas across the city – including schools, childcare organizations and parent councils – on various topics such as virus protection, cyberbullying and stalking, hacking, solicitation, activating parental controls, exposure to harmful content, and social engineering tactics and deception that can be used to target children online. Training was also provided for supervisors and employees at childcare centres and organizations on how to deliver cyber-safety-awareness workshops to children in their respective institutions. To better understand the issue, two research studies on cyber safety awareness were conducted: one in households and another at schools. They were followed by awareness-raising workshops and activities at schools.

A peer education initiative, ‘Cyber Safety Ambassadors’, was launched for 10 to 18 year-olds to deliver awareness-raising workshops to their peers. Younger children were educated through a storybook about safe internet use (available also in Braille). Sharjah, an active stakeholder in supporting the efforts of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), participated in the first United Nations declaration of the rights of the child in the digital environment, with the aim of establishing international standards for the protection of children's rights in the digital world.