School Children! There is a booklet on cyber safety for you

Home Ministry has brought out a booklet on cyber safety for school children to inform them about different aspects of cyber safety. The booklet, titled ‘A Handbook for Students on cyber Safety’, also deals with the problems of cyberbullying, cyber grooming and email fraud. It advises teenagers against accepting friend requests from unknown people on social media.

The booklet explains various kinds of cyber crimes like identity theft, job fraud, email spoofing and how children can overcome them.

The information provided in the handbook is intended to create awareness among citizens especially students about various cyber threats that can impact them and ways to safeguard themselves against cyber crimes.

The booklet also provides details about various safeguards that can be adopted by children to protect themselves from cyber grooming.

On incidents of lynching due to fake news, the booklet, published only in English, cautions: “Fake news and hoax messages spread like wildfire on social media (such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat). It may create law and order problem and may end up causing loss of life in a few cases. Before forwarding or sharing any message on social media or messaging app, check it on other sources also to confirm its authenticity.”

The Home Ministry last year set up a Cyber and Information Security division to check the rapid growth of cyber crimes and cyber threats. It now aims to introduce the cyber crime handbook in schools as a component of the school curriculum.