Kids get lessons on safe net surfing

That was the message the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) attempted to convey to children on Tuesday. Opera Software in association with IAMAI has launched ‘Safe Surfing Campaign,’ an initiative to check cyber crime and encourage safer online experience. The objective of the campaign is to educate more than 25,000 children from Bangalore, Mysore, Ahmedabad, Pune and Hyderabad on safe surfing.

The interactive campaign mainly focused on students of sixth grade and above. “We always advise children not to talk to strangers and remain vigilant while crossing the road. Similar rules need to be applied to the internet as well.  With young kids becoming tech savvy, it has become extremely critical to educate them on the pros and cons of Internet surfing at an early stage,” Rakshit Tandon, consultant and advisor to IAMAI, said.

Tandon said that one of the biggest mistakes is not studying the private settings in social networking sites which enable the hackers easily access all personal information through one’s postings and friends.  The latest trend is to constantly log on to Facebook through mobile phone. He recalled an incident about a businessman who lost his Blackberry, and how he was blackmailed as all accounts were unlocked on his phone.  

Most vulnerable
Surfing pornographic websites can lead to easy hacking as these sites have maximum malicious contents which facilitate the hackers to access all private details, added Tandon.  He said the broadband wifi connection can be easily used by strangers without actually knowing the password as some of the admin logins have the same passwords.

Learn more about the “Safe Surfing Campaign” at http://iamai.in/safesurf/.