Flow & the Caribbean Cyber Security Centre Wants Our Children to Think Before They Click & Surf
The Internet could be an amazing place – its where you find great ways to keep in touch with your friends and family, play games and access resources. But it can also be a very dangerous place.
That was the warning to the class 3 students at Welches Primary School received today from the principals of the Caribbean Cyber Security Centre (CCSC) with their Think Click Surf programme, sponsored by FLOW. The aim of Think Click Surf is to help children of all ages, parents and teachers to identify online danger and how to handle the threat.
CCSC Co-Founder, Deon Olton noted that, “The World Wide Web is a place where our youth can be led astray or harmed, but if used correctly, it can open up the gateway to access information and technology to further develop learning and education. What is extremely important for parents or guardians, teachers and principals to know and understand is that their children are entering those gateways. Whether it’s through on-line video games or social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, or even just doing research for homework – it’s very easy for them.
“There is no stopping our children – it’s not the future, it’s now. Our only weapon of defence to protect our children is to teach them and yourself what to look out for online. The same way we once taught our children not to talk to strangers, the warning remains the same. The only difference is the ways and means to warn them. That’s where we, CCSC with FLOW, comes in,” he added.
Vice president of sales, marketing and communications, Shelly Ann Hee Chung said “As Barbados and the region expand our ICT footprint, it is important that we also acknowledge the countless internet risk and threats facing our children while access the many digital platforms at their disposal. From online sexual predators, cyber criminals and other cyber-related risks, we must ensure the online protection of our most valuable assets, our children. It is even more important that we as parents, caregivers, educators, understand these dangers and ensure that we take a responsible, proactive approach in protecting our kids.”
“There are many tools available to parents but the question remains: Do we know about them and, even more, do we use it? This is why, Columbus partnership with the Caribbean Cyber Security Centre’s THINK, CLICK, SURF programme, is designed to ensure that youth, parents, guardians and teachers are armed with the knowledge of how to use the internet safely and responsibly. Even the shows our kids look at on TV – not all programs are suitable for every audience, especially children.
“In a recent survey conducted by Flow, we recognize that 95% of our customer base are either unaware or do not use the parental control feature, which is available free of charge to all Flow video customers. This feature allows parents to manage their kid’s television viewing habits as you can restrict access not only by program rating or channel, but also by specific days of the week and time of the day. Parents may want to restrict viewing of TV during the week, or only between a certain periods in the day. Flow’s advanced parental control service gives parents that peace of mind with the features available. So the access is there. But the more critical question is: Do we use it?” she added.
Additional information on FLOW’s Parental Control service as well as our other advanced services is available on www.discoverflow.co or on Flow Barbados Facebook page. For more information on the Think Click Surf programme visit http://www.thinkclicksurf.com/.
