Bengal move to spread digital awareness among school children in Darjeeling

EOI, DARJEELING, JUNE 28, 2024 : With the increased use of digital platforms by children and the spike in online child abuse cases since the Covid-19 outbreak, the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) has taken up mass awareness campaigns and decided to recommend age-appropriate digital literacy in schools to make students aware of the risks involved in using social media platforms.

On Friday the WBCPCR in collaboration with UNICEF and the Darjeeling district administration organized the "State Child Protection Day ''at the Gorkha Rangmanch Bhawan in Darjeeling."

Children are becoming vulnerable and many incidents of child trafficking, child marriage, child abuse and child pornography are happening after the traffickers have taken to the internet to dupe them. At this stage, it is necessary to make the children aware of the pitfalls of careless sharing of personal information and photos on the internet by making it apart of school curriculum," said WBCPCR chairperson Tulika Das.

The theme for the event was "stay safe online;" aimed to educate both children and parents the need to be aware of digital literacy.

"Many incidents of child trafficking, child marriage, child abuse have been happening as a result of rampant sharing of personal information by children. The traffickers and other unscrupulous persons use fake identities on social media platforms to lure children into their traps, "said Das.

The WBCPCR chairperson said a growing number of child abuse cases tracked had roots in careless sharing of personal data on social media.

"We will recommend digital literacy to be included in the school curriculum and taught in a child-friendly way to safeguard them when they study or play or make friends on the internet," said Das.

To curb this growing menace, the commission released anti-trafficking posters, audio messages and music videos in the programme on the theme: 'Stay safe online.' Children of Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur, Malda and Murshidahad districts performed to build awareness on children's issues.

Five police personnel and two childcare institutions were given awards for being child-friendly. Das said the north Bengal region with its vast tea gardens was prone to child abuse which needed to be addressed through sanitization programs and public outreach.

"The north Bengal is a border area and prone to child abuse and trafficking. The region also has several tea gardens. We will work in these areas with support of UNICEF to create awareness," said the WBCPCR chairperson.

Urging children not to believe anyone on the internet, Darjeeling Superintendent of Police, Praveen Prakash said personal information, private photographs, personal address, personal phone number, location, school name should never be posted or shared with anyone on the social media platforms.

"Update your privacy settings on social media platforms and hide your identity, block the identity sharing option and delete all unknown persons from the friend list.This practice is cyber hygiene and everyone must follow it for their safety," said Prakash, who was DCP of cyber crime in Kolkata.

UNICEF, which collaborated with the child rights body in organising t5he day's programme works closely with WBCPCR on various child safety programmes in West Bengal. Chief of UNICEF in West Bengal, Prabhat Kumar urged the children and adults to be careful when working on the internet.

"You must think before posting, sharing and accepting any picture, information or data on the internet. Always inform your friends or relatives or police or authorities when you find someone being a victim of cyberbullying," he said. 

Mayor of Siliguri Municipal Corporation Gautam Deb, Darjeeling District Magistrate, Preeti Goyel, Principal Secretary of the Gorkha Territorial Administration, S T Bhutia, Principal Magistrate Juvenile Justice Board of Darjeeling Aparna Chatterjee, Director Child Rights and Trafficking Nilanjana Dasgupta and Darjeeling CMOH Tulsi Pramanik were also present in the programme