Dharamshala: Women’s Empowerment Desk (WED) under SARD, Department of Finance, organised a one day “Digital Parenting” workshop for parents of children under 15 years of age in five Tibetan Settlements from 27 November to 05 December 2021. The objective of the workshop was to raise awareness on the importance of internet safety or digital safety of children. It also aims to help parents with tips and good practices to prevent children from potential risks of the internet like cyberbullying, invasion of privacy, grooming/ online predators, seeing/watching offensive and inappropriate materials, addiction to games and device security issues. The five Tibetan settlements are Mundgod, Delar Bylakuppe, Lugsung Bylakuppe, Dehradun and Dharamshala. A total of 113 parents (30 Male/83 Female) participated in the workshop.
With the COVID lockdown, digital platform has become like a lifeline for many and school classes have been moved online as well. Many children, as young as 5- 6 years old are also online and watch different things on their phones and other electronic devices. There are lots of chances of these children being exposed to inappropriate content, extreme games that are violent, as well as being targeted by online predators. As such it is important for the parents to be equipped with the basic knowledge to make sure their children are safe while online.
The workshop was facilitated by trainers from Tibetan Action Institute (TAI), an NGO based in Dharamshala. Key topics of the workshop include introduction on the internet, best practices, social media, risk of social media, understanding the devices, screen time as well as good practices. Parents were also introduced to free education tools and resources that are available for children online. The workshop also talked about the concept of internet freedom, digital rights and responsibilities.
“The parent-child training being my first time, I felt a certain fulfilling experience in interacting with the parents, spreading awareness about digital security and active engagement with kids as being parents. It was a moving experience to hear and discuss individual parent’s concern about the overall growth and progress of their kids in a pandemic time, with its negative implications such as excessive device usage,” said Lobsang Tsetan, Trainer (TAI).
Report filed by Women’s Empowerment Desk, Department of Finance