Welcome to Safer Internet Day 2019
Safer Internet Day (SID) is an international education and awareness-raising effort spanning more than 140 countries around the globe to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world. Mauritius is among one of the very first countries where government has taken keen interest to protect children and youngsters on the Internet. In this context, a Child Online Safety Action Plan was developed by the National Computer Board (NCB) and endorsed by the cabinet in 2009. Following the approval of the action plan, number of activities has been started on Child Online Safety since 2009 including organisation of the Safer Internet Day.
This year is the 9th edition of Safer Internet Day which will be celebrated in Mauritius. On this occasion, a half day workshop will be organised by the Computer Emergency Response Team of Mauritius (CERT-MU) in collaboration with Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research and Private Secondary Education Authority (PSEA) at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Moka on 6 February 2019. It is a national level workshop and invites students from all the secondary school students of the island and their teachers. The objective of the workshop is to educate students on the Internet safety, where the focus is to align the talks in line with the slogan “together for a better Internet”.
On this occasion, an aggressive sensitization campaign will also be launched which includes the distribution of posters on online safety to all secondary schools and community centers.
The internet safety messages will be passed on to the population at large through the national television and radio’s on 5th February 2019. The promotion will also be done through the CERT-MU and NCB Facebook pages.
The programme for the workshop is as follows:
09:15 – 09:30 |
REGISTRATION |
09:30 – 09:35 |
Welcome Address
Mrs. Joanne Esmyot
Executive Director, National Computer Board |
09:35 – 09:45 |
Address
Mr. Dhurma Ashdeo Soburrun
Chairman, National Computer Board |
09:45 – 10:00 |
Opening Address
Hon. Mr. Yogida Sawmynaden
Minister of Technology, Communication & Innovation |
10:00 – 10:20 |
TEA BREAK |
10:20 – 10:50 |
How Consent Works in an Online Context
Dr. Kaleem Usmani
Officer-In-Charge, CERT-MU, National Computer Board |
10:50– 11:20 |
Understanding and identifying risks related to Internet use for Children
Mr. Joel Joy Pascal
Business Development Manager, NETTOBE SOLUTIONS |
11:20 – 11:50 |
Internet use and social media: Impact on mental health and psychological wellbeing of youth
Dr. (Mrs.) Mridula Naga
Consultant-Psychiatry |
11:50 – 12:15 |
Panel Discussion |
CERT-MU is also planning to organise the following activities from February 2019 onwards:
- Training of teachers on use of Social media and Internet dangers
- Awareness sessions on Internet Safety for Secondary School students in Mauritius and Rodrigues from February 2019
- Awareness sessions on Internet Safety for Parents, Grandparents and House Wives through NCB’s cyber caravans and Community Welfare Centres from February 2019 onwards