Speakers in the Child Online Safety school awareness program of Grameenphone stressed on the need of child online safety to reap the benefits of the Internet in a session arranged at Sir John Wilson School today. Beginning in September 2017 till now the program engaged over 50,000 students in more than 240 schools across the country in partnership with BRAC, the largest global NGO.
The session was attended by Grameenphone CEO Michael Patrick Foley and Sabrina Shahed, Principal of Sir John Wilson School along with Mahmud Hossain, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer and Rasna Hasan, Head of Sustainability of Grameenphone.
Speaking on the occasion Grameenphone CEO said,” Access to Internet and youngster’s ability to use it confidently is very important as the world is in the midst of a digital revolution. Therefore we are trying to aware school children around the country to learn the skills to be safe on the Internet and use it responsibly.”
“As a school, it is our responsibility to protect and guide our students which only can happen through dialogues. We have been talking about internet safety for some time now with parents. Today’s initiative is a first of its kind and we are thankful to Grameenphone for taking the lead which will make our students more conscious of the dangers and smarter in using gazettes and technology,” said Sabrina Shahed.
In Bangladesh a survey conducted by Telenor of secondary students who have internet connections have found that half are likely to encounter cyberbullying or unsafe online situations, However, any such unpleasant experience can easily be avoided with few simple preventive measures and common sense.
Therefore awareness initiatives for young minds on online safety are very important. The Child Online Safety program has been designed to mainly raise awareness amongst school children, on how to use internet securely with few simple guidelines. Before this year’s program, Grameenphone reached 80,000 children in 500 schools across Bangladesh with BRAC through activations in schools and distribution of guidebooks on the safe and responsible use of the internet.