ABU DHABI // A resident is setting up an organisation he hopes will make the internet safer for children.
Mustafa Saidalavi, a former web systems architect from India, quit his job at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to establish the UAE chapter of Disc, or Developing Internet Safe Community.
Mr Saidalavi hopes to have the branch open by the end of the year.
“We aim to create an international framework to protect children on the online platform,” he said. “Educating parents is important and so we will be creating a syllabus for children as well as parents.
“Children will have classes on internet safety and parents will also have to attend a couple of sessions each year.”
The teachers will be trained by professionals at Disc. Mr Saidalavi and his team have contacted global agencies for support.
“The FBI, Interpol, National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, Unicef and WHO are some of the organisations willing to collaborate with us,” he said.
With the help of these organisations, Mr Saidalavi hopes to create a model framework for protecting children that can be adopted by other countries.
“Disc Foundation will also be a regional centre for research on this subject,” he said.
The issue is a very personal one for Mr Saidalavi, who has been organising awareness programmes for parents and children in his lesiure hours for 15 years.
Years ago, worried parents asked him to speak to their son, 14, who they suspected was addicted to pornography, and he agreed to help.
Waiting for the boy to arrive, Mr Saidalavi decided to look at his computer and what he found was shocking. The boy had been watching violent pornography involving children.
“The fact that a 14-year-old was watching such things shocked and disturbed me,” said Mr Saidalavi.
“In the UAE, the biggest issues are the child being exposed to inappropriate content or being contacted by strangers or predators.”
Dr Veena Luthra, a psychiatrist at American Centre for Psychiatry and Neurology in Abu Dhabi, said: “Exposure to pornography can have a dangerous impact on young, impressionable minds.
“Often this is the only source of information about sex for a curious youngster. It objectifies young women who feel they have to look raunchy to be attractive to men. Information on sexual responsibility and protection from sexually transmitted disease is not provided.”
Children and teenagers in the UAE are prolific users of social media, making them particularly vulnerable.
The Arab Social Media Report 2014 published by the Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government showed 17 per cent of respondents gave their children younger than 13 smartphones or laptops.
And 20 per cent of respondents believed that children between the ages of 8 and 10 should be allowed to own internet-enabled devices.
“Many parents think of their child owning a smartphone as a status symbol and are not aware of the risks,” Dr Luthra said. “Children may end up over-sharing personal information on social networks or encountering child predators, or pursue unsupervised and inappropriate relationships.
“‘Sexting’ is another problem and I have seen young teens who have sent nude pictures of themselves to a friend.
“The youngster does not have the foresight to think about the permanency of these images or the harm to their reputation if it is circulated to people other than the intended recipient.
“I have seen a few youngsters who were distraught by this situation and subject to name-calling by friends on social media, to the point that the youngster wanted to commit suicide to escape the situation.
“The most important thing parents can do is to communicate with their children about their internet use and safety online.”
arizvi2@thenational.ae
