Digi Telecommunication Sdn Bhd together in partnership with Protect & Save the Children (PS the Children) and supported by the Royal Malaysian Police organised a capacity building training programme, ‘Child online safety training for the Police and Child Protectors’ last week.
The training was attended by personnels from the Royal Malaysian Police (Polis Diraja Malaysia, PDRM), Attorney-General Chambers, Ministry of Women, Family and Development as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Conducted by Dr Sangeet Bhullar, Founder and Executive Director of Wise Kids, UK, the training programme was aimed at capacity building for relevant local authorities as well as strengthening partnerships to collaborate in tackling the increasing issues on online safety. She also shared some current trends, risks as well as global best practices and solutions which are developed for children, youth and families to promote positive and safe use of online services.
“Based from our experience working with adults and children, there will be a high chance of receiving a disclosure from children or the carers, hence this initiative to collaborate with enforcement agencies is crucial in order to explore, expand and create an effective criminal justice system for cybercrimes,” said Madeleine Yong, Board Member of P.S The Children.
She also added that children who are vulnerable offline will also be vulnerable online and it is important to educate adults on how to respond to disclosure and who to report is important. “Thus, we believe an effective, sustainable prevention program in place will result in the increase of reporting.”
P.S The Children is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation with a vision of a world that upholds the rights and dignity of every child – where every child is protected from sexual abuse and exploitation.
“Nowadays, with mobile communications and internet easily accessible to our children, it is our responsibility to protect and equip them with skills to counter the rising number of cyber risks. This is the core of DiGi’s CyberSAFE in Schools programme: building better digital citizens who are more resilient to online risks, and who are more responsible in online conduct,” said Philip Ling, Digi’s Programme Manager for Sustainability.
“Also as part of the joint efforts to further develop national capacity and support networks in the area of cyber safety, we will continue to bring in experts in this area through partnering with likeminded organisations such as PS the Children. We believe these experts will be able to further educate and empower all relevant stakeholders, who will then put the knowledge into practice and implement measures to enforce cyber safety and create a safer digital community in Malaysia,” he added.
The session was held at the D’House, Digi’s headquarters.
