Egypt Spearheads Awareness Efforts on Internet Safety Issues

In an effort to spread the awareness and knowledge on cyberspace safety and trigger a national and regional dialogue on the culture of internet safety, Egypt's First Lady, and the President and Founder of the Suzanne Mubarak Women's International Peace Movement (SMWIPM), Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak will be inaugurating a conference on internet safety for youth and children titled "Young People in the Internet and Mobile Age: Safe and Empowered!".

This two-day event - held at the Smart Village and attended by 400 participants - is one of the projects related to a dedicated track to spreading awareness on Internet safety issues of the Movement's Cyber Peace Initiative.

The conference aims to provide an opportunity for Egypt to get first-hand knowledge and experience about the world’s best practices in internet safety. The event will bring together stakeholders from all over the world to exchange experiences, identify risks and share responsibilities on the issue.

The opening ceremony of the conference will witness the launch of the Egyptian Internet-Safety Youth Focus Group – 'Net Aman' by Ms. Mubarak. 'Net Aman’s main mandate is to develop guidelines for online safety and help spread the culture of internet safe use among the group’s peers, in schools and the wider community in Egypt.

Mrs. Mubarak will also declare the launch of the Egyptian Internet-Safety Parents' Focus Group during the event. The focus group aims at enhancing the parents and caregivers’ in protecting their families by raising their awareness of the safe use of the internet and acquainting them with safe means of technology use.

An exhibition to showcase different internet safety awareness efforts will be organized on the sidelines of the conference. The exhibition will include booths for Net-Aman; parents’ efforts to familiarize themselves with the language of the internet titled "Let’s Learn the Language"; "Empowering Youth" booth displaying one of the projects of the Cyber Peace Initiative's tracks; and the "Fun Area" corner showcasing a selection of awareness practices.

A total of 400 youths, parents, expert speakers and representatives from the Egyptian government, academia, industry, media, law enforcement sectors, NGOs and civil society are expected to participate in the conference.

The conference is considered one of the initial contributions to Egypt's preparation and hosting of the Internet Governance Forum in 2009.

The "Cyber Peace Initiative", first of its kind in the region, was launched on September 2007 in Sharm el-Sheikh under the auspices of Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak on the sidelines of the International Youth Forum. The initiative aims to empower the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to spread a culture of peace, tolerance and dialogue among the youth as well as protecting children from the misuse of the internet.

How to stay safe ONLINE?

The SMART rules, it is important that your children know how to stay in control online. The SMART rules will enable children to be safe and be smart online.

Safe: Keep safe by being careful not to give out your personal information, such as your name, e-mail, home address or school name, phone number to people online.

Meeting: Meeting someone you have only been in touch with online can be dangerous. If you feel that you ‘have to’ meet, then for your own safety you must tell your parents and take them with you at least on the first visit.

Accepting: Accepting emails, messages or opening files, pictures or texts from people you don’t really know or trust can lead to problems, they may contain viruses which can wreck your computer, or nasty messages and images.

Reliable: Remember that people online may not be really who they say they are, and so online ‘friends’ are really strangers, no matter how many times you have chatted with them, unless you know and trust them in the ‘offline world.’

Tell: Tell your parent if someone or something makes you feel uncomfortable or worried.