The Women Safety Wing of Telangana police on Tuesday launched a new initiative aimed at making cyberspace safe for adolescent children.
CybHER – III or Cyber Congress programme will run for 10 months and will comprise robust training session and practical activities conducted in urban and rural settings of Telangana.
The inaugural programme of Cyber Congress was held on Tuesday in a virtual mode. Director General of Police M.Mahendar Reddy formally inaugurated the programme in the presence of Swati Lakra, Addl. DGP, Women Safety Wing, B. Sumathi, Dy. IGP, Women Safety Wing, A. Sri Devasena, Commissioner and Director of School Education Department, Sandeep Kumar Sulthania, Secretary, Panchayat Raj and Secretary of Education and other officials.
The DGP called upon all the adolescent children, youth and women to acquaint themselves with different kinds of cyber crimes being indulged in by the offenders and the relevant cyber laws through which they can protect themselves.
He stated that no one should fall prey to the cyber trap and young students should play the role of a leader as cyber ambassadors.
Under the initiative, students will be selected from each school with a teacher. The team will promote the positive uses of the internet. It then gets connected to experts online through a Learning Management System (LMS) for regular sessions which in turn is shared with the students by the local cyber ambassadors.
The programme will be held across 33 districts of Telangana targeting 50 schools from each district. Overall, the project aims to empower 1,650 teachers and 3,300 children.
The objectives of the cyber Congress programme is to reach out to rural areas on preventive cyber crimes, impart awareness on online safety in educational institutes, bridge gap between police and youngsters, women through She teams on cyber safety, work with various stakeholders especially education department, cyber experts and civil society organizations to bring mass and sustained cyber awareness and create a pool of young and well aware cyber ambassadors to help government institutions of all districts of Telangana associate with local communities and police in addressing online safety issues.
Swati Lakra said it will create a need based syllabus and impart knowledge in a practical way, create a cyber safety movement among young populations by engaging them in activity connected to personal online safety at community level.
The 10-month Cyber Congress initiative consists of detailed online sessions facilitated by cyber security expert Rakshit Tandon. The Cyber Congress initiative will focus on training selected students and teachers as cyber ambassadors who will be trained on all aspects of cyber safety and will in turn educate everyone in their school and community circles on how to be safe from cyber crimes.
The cyber ambassadors will be facilitators who will not only educate but provide assistance to others if/when they witness any cyber crimes being committed.
The sessions will be conducted via video-conferencing and will also include assignments and activities which may be conducted on-ground in compliance with all Covid-19 safety protocols. The cyber ambassadors (students and teachers) will receive certificates from Women Safety Wing, Telangana Police and the Education Department, Government of Telangana.
Due to the spike in cyber crimes during the lockdown, Women Safety Wing (WSW) had earlier conducted a Youngster Conscious Survey on how to be safe online.
The month-long CybHER awareness campaign in July 2020 to make cyberspace safe for women and children reached over 50 lakh people.
Under CybHER- II, WSW conducted a massive online awareness sessions on cyber safety during March 2021 to 3.75 lakh school children in Telangana. During these sessions, the students asked multiple questions on cyber safety which prompted the need for a long-term project called Cyber Congress.
