Lieutenant Colonel Jasim Mirza, director of Security Awareness at Dubai Police, said Internet safety for children “is the responsibility of parents and families, as children may not know what can harm them,” the news site Gulf News said on Thursday.
The report said this new campaign sprouted from a meeting between several government agencies, including the Ministry of Interior, the Community Development Authority and the Dubai police.
Guidelines for children
Authorities said there are 16 steps to protect children from online dangers, which include:
* talking to the children about the Internet and its benefits
* setting up rules for allowed websites and browsing time
* tell the children that not everything on the Internet is true, and
* warn them again writing or posting something that cannot be removed later.
“They should also be told that their parents will not be with them always and thus they must use self-discipline, and while they must be informed of the risks, they should not be banned from accessing the Internet without giving them a reason,” Gulf News said.
Mirza also said parents should warn their children against the following:
* posting personal or family pictures
* carrying out financial transactions
* giving out a password
* opening e-mails from unknown sources, and
* meeting Internet acquaintances in person.
Mirza also noted that unsupervised use of the Internet can lead children to ignore their home and school duties, the report said.
“They can also accidentally come across adult websites or open e-mails and links from unknown sources, which may give hackers a chance to hack their computers and obtain personal and financial information,” the Gulf News added.
Internet in the UAE
Internet usage in the UAE is guided by a set of rules, mostly rooted on grounds of religion and conservatism.
These rules, according to the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation-Etisalat, includes the prohibition of sites that provide online dating or matchmaking, gambling, hacking codes, and even Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, which, in turn, blocks Skype.
OpenNet Initiative—which investigates and analyzes Internet filtering and surveillance practices “in a credible and non-partisan fashion”—said that the government of UAE “censors political and religious content and pervasively filters sites that contain pornography or content relating to alcohol and drug use, gay and lesbian issues…”
“Additionally, legal controls limit free expression and behavior, restricting political discourse and dissent online,” it said.
Etisalat, however, noted that among the exemptions are chatting services and social networking sites.
Last year, Emirates 24|7 said majority of the Internet users in the UAE go online to access their Facebook profiles.
Source: GMA News
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