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Highlights Of #SafeInCyberia Telethon: An Initiative To Ensure Safety In An Increasingly Online World For Teens And Young Adults
How can we keep our young adults safe from an increasingly online world? Find out how to stay safe in Cyberia with NDTV and Amrita University's 'Safe In Cyberia' initiative
Privacy is a fundamental right: Rama Vedashree, CEO, Data Security Council of India
While privacy is declared as a fundamental right, we first need legislation and enforcement to make sure it is operationalised. In terms of the rights, whether it's children or adults in the online world, they need to be familiar with what are the risks of online platforms and how do you responsible use that. Given the current landscape of India where a lot of users are coming line now or many of them are not digitally very literate. The cognitive burden of building those kinds of controls and safety mechanisms should also rest with the actual providers of those platforms. The providers could be industry members or government agencies. What are the controls you are putting in place so that any personal data is being shared, you are responsibly collecting and sharing it? And when it comes to children, are you really doing some necessary age verification as there are technological solutions to do so. When it comes to rights, given that we really don't have a legal framework yet, I would say there are no rights as such but you do have the IT act and sensitive personal data.
While privacy is declared as a fundamental right, we first need legislation and enforcement to make sure it is operationalised. In terms of the rights, whether it's children or adults in the online world, they need to be familiar with what are the risks of online platforms and how do you responsible use that. Given the current landscape of India where a lot of users are coming line now or many of them are not digitally very literate. The cognitive burden of building those kinds of controls and safety mechanisms should also rest with the actual providers of those platforms. The providers could be industry members or government agencies. What are the controls you are putting in place so that any personal data is being shared, you are responsibly collecting and sharing it? And when it comes to children, are you really doing some necessary age verification as there are technological solutions to do so. When it comes to rights, given that we really don't have a legal framework yet, I would say there are no rights as such but you do have the IT act and sensitive personal data. Digital environment that the pandemic created has further taken over practically every aspect of our lives. All our needs are being met online. Young adults, especially those in schools, are consuming and interacting with data like never before. But we are not just getting from the online world, we are also giving out something vital - information. About us. Without even knowing it.
Cybercrime, which includes everything from theft and embezzlement to data hacking and identity theft, was up 600% as a result of the pandemic. But the vast majority of the teens and young adults are not aware of the perils of the online world.
Issues of data security and privacy are not widely known. The frequent use of digital tools to lure young people into dangerous and compromising situations is not known. The infinite possibilities and types of cybercrime are not known.
Physical spaces have been replaced by virtual playgrounds. Face-to-face meetings now mean emojis. If you like someone you send them a gif and not a gift. Student research is done on google and not in a physical library. There is an app to track and manage literally every aspect of our lives. For the shoppers, aisles have been replaced by pages. Our wallets are no longer made of leather.
In short, we are living our lives in "Cyberia "and this was before the pandemic. The pandemic has changed the way we interact with and consume data.
