'Sharenting' Can Be Trouble For Your Kids: ADGP Harmeet Singh To Parents

Assam Police on Friday launched the nation-wide ‘We Think Digital’ campaign with an aim to sensitise children, adolescents, parents, guardians and teachers on how to save themselves from any kind of harm in the cyber space.

As part of the inauguration of the campaign, an interactive session was organized at the Royal Global School in Guwahati. It was attended by students from several schools in the city.

The programme was aimed at sensitizing people about the best practices to ensure digital safety. It included digital literacy awareness sessions, training resources, knowledge repository including child and adult safety self-help material, safety videos, resources and help guide to spread awareness about cyber bullying, sextortion, grooming darknet services, social engineering, trolling, identity theft, hacking, breach of privacy, and the likes.

The digital literacy awareness program was also aimed at equipping adolescents with the tools and knowledge to tackle online threats and to promote safe online behaviour.

Speaking at the session, Harmeet Singh, the additional director general of Assam police (ADGP) highlighted the implications of over sharing on social media and talked to the students about ways to keep themselves safe.

He introduced several factors to be kept in mind to ensure a safe session on the internet. With the help of viral memes, Singh highlighted how people should refrain from sharing personal information that can be easily used against them in a fun and interactive way.

Also Read: IIT-G and Assam Govt Signs MoU to Set up Multi-Specialty Hospital

'Sharenting', he explained, when enthusiastic parents share personal information about their children on social media platforms, could spell trouble for the children.

Singh said, "To be safe, you need to #think. Social media is the new idiom of communication. We must navigate to stay safe."

"Follow good creative pages, learn and engage using social media platforms for learning creative arts and educating ourselves, rather than aimlessly scrolling and not getting the most out of it," he added.

He ensured that Assam Police will always be available to assist in any such case, though, he advised the children to seek help from trusted adults if they found themselves in trouble.

He was part of the panel, which also included IAS Ghanshyam Dass, the secretary of the state's information and technology deportent and Kargil war veteran Colonel Sunil Kapila, an expert on cyber security.

It was followed by a technical session for the students where Col. Kapila interacted with them on cyber security and electronic warfare.

The session ended with a quiz for the children where they were also handed prizes.

The programme was organized in association with Meta Platforms comprising Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, and India Future Foundation, a leading not for profit think tank working on digital literacy, cyber safety, public policy, capacity building and research.

Also Read: Assam Floods Force School Children To Travel In Boats