On 14th May, Non-profit human and community development organization Equal Playing Field, launched its School Action Group cyber-safety videos. CEO Jacquelyn Joseph celebrated and acknowledged the adolescent boys and girls who produced the videos.
The videos launch was to inform the organisation’s partners and stakeholders on the use of these videos and for public access on their social media platforms.
Ms. Joseph said the event was about three videos that they launched on Cyber-safety.
“What’s amazing about them is that we’ve had kids especially between the ages of 12 and 16 who have taken part in creating these videos. Why this connects to the work EPF does is that we are really concerned about the protection of children, not just physically but online as well,” said Ms. Joseph.
The competition was held 6 months ago and straight after it the 4 young winners who took part in advocating for why we should be safe while we are online.
“We have about 20 School Action Groups and about 80% of them are here in NCD, and these school clubs or SAG, they are made up of young people who are school advocates in their schools and they talk about different things like Gender Equality and bullying. But they also have a focus on type of safety because of the fact that a lot of our young people are getting online without the permission of their parents, so this is why we as an organization are supporting this issue of being safe online or advocating on cyber-safety.”
There have been different ways of how the EPF programs have helped teachers. One of the main ways is when school’s reach out to EPF and seek advice.
A panel discussion led by Ms Joseph asked the winning students of their opinions regarding Cyber-safety. The answer that stood out was for students to be careful online and for parents to monitor their children’s internet usage.
As an organization, EPF has always been concerned about young people’s issues. If Cyber-safety continues to be an issue, this will be an area they will continue to focus on.
Ms. Joseph stated that there are also many issues of school’s being a child-safe-place and they are working towards creating standards for this reason.