Bahrain: TRA Champions Online Safety for Children With New Initiative
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) Bahrain is working to raise awareness among young people, their parents, and teachers of potential online dangers, including cyberbullying, and ways they can minimize risk. The TRA’s Online Safety Initiative builds on the successful Cyber Safety program conducted in November 2022 to further encourage responsible ICT usage.
The TRA, in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Global Program on Child Online Protection, has worked closely to highlight the importance of this key issue.
The Child Online Protection training sessions, aimed at enlightening educators and youth organizations on how to safeguard children and educate them about their online rights, were held with the participation of over 300 educators across Bahrain from both private and public schools.
The program gave educators deeper insight into online risks and how to create a safer online school experience for students. Moreover, it assisted educators in identifying the types of threats that children encounter when exploring the digital world, such as cyberbullying, misinformation, and inappropriate content.
Educators also discovered preventive measures to mitigate potential online threats and built on their knowledge of how to respond to and disclose an issue if students are harmed online.
“Young people are more vulnerable to online threats during the summer vacation. We must safeguard users’ security and online privacy, especially considering the growing use of smartphones and social media amongst young people,” May Alghatam, Acting Manager of Online Safety, said.
“Educational institutions play a significant role in raising student awareness about the potential threats and risks associated with the use of the Internet. Developing a cyberbullying prevention program, in accordance with society’s cultural characteristics and education system, is an influential factor in the effectiveness of the program. Students, administrations, parents, and community members must be aware of and educated about cyberbullying to curb this pressing issue,” she added.
She elaborated that as part of the Cyber Safety Program, additional training sessions targeting youths of different age groups will be conducted in the new academic year to continually raise awareness of online safety.
