Page 16 - SAMENA Trends - September 2019

FULFILLING NATIONAL ICT VISIONS BY BUILDING TRUST IN THE INTERNET AND PROTECTING THE CONNECTED SAMENA TRENDS

UAE’s Child Digital Safety Initiative Ensures Protection of Children

The UAE protects children by enforcing laws to
protect them and empowers them by providing
education, good health and other facilities.
Ministry of Interior (MoI) established the Higher
Committee for Child Protection in 2009 and
the MoI’s Child Protection Centre in 2011 to
undertake the role of developing, implementing
and customizing the initiatives and processes
aiming at providing safety, security and
protection for all children living in the UAE or
even those coming as visitors. The committee
plays a key role in maintaining the safety of

children, because achieving justice and protection for children
Digital Life in the UAE is a shared responsibility.

In March 2019, the UAE launched its “Child Digital Safety”
98% The UAE leads the world in terms of internet initiative to help protect children from online threats; an aim
user penetration at a staggering rate of 98%
deemed to be an essential part of the UAE government’s
efforts to raise awareness among children of the dangers of
8 HOURS 3 HOURS the Internet.
average daily time spent per day on average spent
online per person on social media In 2018, a study by Norton Cybersecurity revealed that parents
in the UAE lacked the experience to deal with their children’s
82% 83% online activities.
smartphone penetration of population are user of Nearly 90 percent of the parents said their children excessively
Facebook use the Internet, while 31 percent said their children were
bullied online.
83% 53%
of population are frequent of population has The study also revealed that 66 percent of families said they
users of Whatsapp Instagram account put no controls in place to limit children’s online access.
The average time spent online per person each day in the UAE
is eight hours, with three of those spent on social media.
Child Digital Safety
The new initiative is familiarizing parents and educators
with solutions they can use to address various child-safety
34% 66% challenges. It consists of four main sub-initiatives: Interactive
of parents leave their of parents do not set Children’s Camp; Digital Wellbeing Portal; Training Workshops;
children surf the internet parental control options and a Support Platform to answer urgent queries from parents
without supervision on their children devices regarding digital safety. The initiative is a joint program of
the UAE Ministry of Interior and the National Programme for
31% 87% Happiness and Well-being.

of parents suffer from of the children spend too
their children being bullied much time online This child-safety initiative has affirmed the UAE government’s
online commitment to maintaining family stability and social
cohesion, and to keeping children at the top of its socio-
87% economic development agenda — which, not only in the
of parents acknowledge the risk of leaving the children UAE but in any society and sustainable economy requires
maintaining social stability, empowering positive and active
surf the internet without supervision citizens, and raising the future generation, fully prepared to
handle challenges of the new digital world.

16 SEPTEMBER 2019