A research conducted by campaign for Female Education (Camfed) earlier 2014 in some districts of the northern region has revealed that access to the internet via computers is still quite limited in rural areas, the widespread use of mobile phones and smart devices are enabling children and young people to access social media sites surprisingly regularly.
Some children and young people are already falling victims to scams, including requests to send money, requests to share personal information including address and bank details, and agreeing to meet strangers they have met online.
Camfed is a non-governmental organization dedicated in eradicating poverty through education of girls and empowerment of young women.
According to the research, young people are exposed to pornographic materials through ICT, though they strongly expressed their view about the damaging impact of looking at such images.
While teachers are now engaged in delivering ICT, their knowledge even of the course contents they are teaching is quite low, and teacher’s use of social media does not appear to be keeping pace with young people’s indicating an important area for training.
Awareness of these dangers among young people and their teachers in the northern Ghana the research said is largely absent.
It is against this backdrop that Camfed in partnership with Credit Suisse is embarking on a campaign to protect children and young people in northern region by enabling them and their teachers to become aware of the risk of ICT.
The core objective of the online safety awareness programme by Camfed, is extension of Camfed’s pioneering work on child protection, seeks to enable children and young people to access more educational and personal development opportunities through the safe and responsible use of ICT.
The campaign seeks to reach out to at least 4200 school children from 32 junior and senior high schools in 17 districts of the northern region. Internet usage in Ghana has grown exponentially over the past few years.
Access to internet via mobile phones is predicted to continue to rise as access becomes easier, cheaper and more popular. This, Camfed said will advance opportunities for access to information and communications and also bring threats and important considerations for child protection. Operations Manager at Camfed, Charles Atia told Zaa News that a cascade model, 210 safe ITC toolkit developed by Camfed tailored to the needs of young people in rural Ghana to lead the campaigns within the districts.
In addition, a radio programe will be aired weekly aiming at reaching out to as many communities as possible within the northern region.
The programme he said also hopes to initiate discussions with stakeholders at the district, regional and national levels to formulate and enforce policies that will safeguard children and young people against the negative impacts on the ITCs.
By; Ibrahim Dikunyalala/zaaradio.com
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