“After opening the Facebook account, I gave the password to a friend. He started spreading various information, pictures from messenger to my relatives. I was humiliated in many ways by my family, relatives. I was bullied by my friends. After that, I was forced to change my Facebook account.”
Sabina was sharing her experience online at the closing ceremony of the programme, “Be Smart, Use Heart” on the theme “Online safety of every child in Bangladesh” at Bangladesh Shishu Academy in Dhaka on Thursday.
Kamrangichar resident Masuma shared a similar experience. Due to lack of security, this student was eventually bound to change her SIM and mobile phone.
In a study, “An Assessment of Viewership of the Online Safety Intervention of Child Protection” by Unicef, a survey was conducted on internet users aged 10-19 years in 28 districts of Bangladesh and 2.5% of adolescents were found to have been victims of cyber bullying in the last six months.
At the end of the research presentation, Dr Suaib Mohammad of Search Limited said that although the percentage of bullying is low here, its impact is very high. Due to cyber-bullying, victims as well as their family members are in danger.
SM Latif, joint secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, said: "We are moving towards the fourth industrial revolution – artificial intelligence. But unfortunately, the negative effects of the internet on us increase further. About 70% of students now use the internet. The internet is an addiction like drugs. So, we need to know our limits while using it.”
Monira Hasan, Unicef Bangladesh Child Protection specialist, presented her paper on "Enhancing Child Online Protection and Engaging Adolescents as Agents of Change in Bangladesh".
She said that between 2018-2021, trained social workers of UNICEF and MOSW received 4,90,217 calls at Child Helpline 1098 (CHL) from children asking for cyber safety.
In addition, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the education of children and teenagers was transferred to online platforms in large numbers, so the issue of online safety has become essential. Therefore, this program is being conducted with the aim of creating a safe learning space for safe online participation of children.
Grameenphone Head of Communications Khairul Bashar said that in addition to the awareness program, online safety should be highlighted in textbooks.
Unicef's Child Protection Section Manager Elisa Kalpana, Grameenphone Head of Partnership and Strategic Project Rasna Hasan and Head of Social Impact Farhana Islam, among others, spoke on the occasion.
According to Unicef, more than 500,000 children and adolescents, 470,000 secondary school students, 73,947 teachers and 50,000 parents have been trained under the online safety program.