Digital safety workshop series launched at public schools

TikTok and the Zindagi Trust have launched a series of workshops at the latter’s network of public schools across Pakistan to spread awareness about digital safety among students, teachers and parents.

This initiative will see up to 3,000 students, teachers and parents attend day-long workshops to learn about the internet’s safe usage, with a focus on social media. Separate workshops will also be held for teachers and parents to educate them on how they can ensure the safety of youngsters on the internet.

Young internet users in grades seven to nine will be able to learn about the best practices of internet usage, and how they can become responsible digital citizens and cultivate a safe online community across the nation.

The workshops will cover a range of topics, which include navigating online safety issues such as cyberbullying, catfishing (using fake identities to target specific victims) and false information.

The detailed modules will cover the harmful behaviours prevalent on social media, the ways to share appropriate information, identifying fake news and misinformation, and reporting mechanisms to report illegal and harmful content on social media.

Content for the workshops was designed keeping in mind the findings of student surveys that were conducted prior to their launch. The surveys helped identify the major challenges students have been facing on the internet, including issues like online bullying and harassment.

The workshops also aim to educate teachers and parents on how to use the safety features on platforms like TikTok to ensure that children remain safe on social media. For instance, they will be guided about TikTok’s Family Pairing features, which allow parents to link their TikTok accounts to their teenagers’ and set controls, including Screentime Management, Restricted Mode and Direct Messages.

Farah Tukan, head of government relations and public policy for Middle East, Turkey, Africa and Pakistan at TikTok, said: “These workshops that are a part of our ongoing partnership with the Zindagi Trust are another step in the right direction for ensuring our TikTok community in Pakistan remains digitally safe.”

She said: “We are fully committed to ensuring the safety of Pakistan’s digital community, as we continue implementing policies and processes to proactively identify and prevent every attempt to share inappropriate content on our platform.”

Faiq Ahmed, senior marketing and resource development manager at the Zindagi Trust, said: “It brings us great joy to be a part of this wonderful digital safety campaign in partnership with TikTok to deliver informative workshops for students in our adopted government schools.” He said: “It’s about time we make sure our young generation is aware of digital safety so they are better equipped to deal with safety and privacy challenges on the internet.”