Seminar stresses need for cyber awareness among students

To safeguard schools against cyber threats, the need to promote cybersecurity-conscious community among students, staff, and parents has been canvassed.

Speaking at a seminar organised by the Lagos State Safety Commission, in collaboration with Safe School Lagos (SSLAG), yesterday, titled, ‘Building a Strong Cyber Safety Awareness in Schools’, speakers expressed the need to secure students not just in the physical space, but also in cyber/digital space.

Held at the Balmoral Convention Centre, Ikeja, Lagos, the event attracted students from both private and public schools in the state. SSLAG, an acronym for Safe Schools Lagos, is an initiative that has developed as a follow up on the 10 Standard School Safety Guidelines that were initially launched in 2013 by the Lagos State Government.

The mission is to make schools and all allied establishment, where children are congregated safe by preventing avoidable risks; raising general safety awareness amongst teams protecting children from harm and demonstrating the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).

According to the Director General, Lagos Safety Commission, Lanre Omojola, the seminar is a proactive step to equip students on cyber consciousness, noting that cyber crimes such as phishing, using fake email messages to get personal information from internet users, misusing personal information (identity theft), hacking or shutting down or misusing websites or computer networks; cyber bully and exposure to inappropriate content have become common.

He noted that the seminar was organised to provide students hands-on information on how to protect themselves from those who want to prey on them.

In her keynote address, titled, ‘Psychologically informed approaches to safety and harmony in education’, the CEO of Mosaic World, Milton Kynes, UK, noted that human interaction with the internet was determined by “the things that are important to you as a person;” adding, “there is a need to be digitally responsible.”

According to her as part of a larger eco-system, parents should take time to have conversation with their children, build a relationship of trust as well as engage with and support them to have good relationship on the Internet.