Workshops on Internet Safety for children

The internet safety class together with the trainers. These workshops are being held across UNIFIL’s area of operation.

The Internet Safety trainers prepare their outline plan for the workshop presented by UNIFIL in partnership with Lebanon’s Higher Council for Childhood (HCC) within the Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA).

During the course the participants broke into smaller groups outlining how young people might be able to recognize and report on online abuse.

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5 Oct 2016

Workshops on Internet Safety for children

Lebanon is online and mobile. The amount of people accessing the internet through handheld devices has grown as the infrastructure for mobile communication advances. In 2014 UNdata estimated nearly 75% of Lebanese people have access to the internet. Like most parts of the world children are increasingly online, using the internet to socialize, research and enjoy multimedia content.

With this in mind, and in advance of the new school year, UNIFIL in partnership with Lebanon’s Higher Council for Childhood (HCC) within the Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA) have run a series of workshops around south Lebanon promoting the Safer Use of the Internet for Children.

The objective of the workshops is to show professionals, parents, municipalities, volunteers and children how to surf online safely. There is a capacity building element to the course through the initial “Train-the-trainer” day.  Here participants are shown how to pass on these skills to young people. Crucially the workshops caution on the potential risks to children of careless internet use. It teaches young people how to recognize online recruiting methods and cases of abuse against children (trafficking and sexual abuse), and how to report these.  

The course is as up to date as possible, incorporating social media platforms. A coordinator of the Awareness Committee at the HCC and trainer, Katia Haddad, points out “The trainees might think they are familiar with the material of the session but they discover there are new things they have never known before.”
The participants were enthusiastic and engaged. Zainab Aidibi, from the center of Developmental services in Jabal al-Butm, reflects, “I was very attracted by the topic of the session and I wanted to take part in it as soon as I learnt that it is on internet use and children’s safety. An important issue in this regard is that we should not prevent our children from using the internet, but instead there must be monitoring and implementation of certain rules to use internet properly.”

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Article: Aoibheann O'Sullivan
Video Editor: Mohamad Hamze, Suzane Badereddine
Video Camera: Mohamad Hamze
Photo: Suzane Badereddine
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