Building a safety web for children

Kohzikode: The story of Soumya, 15, is not a rare one in Kerala these days: a school girl getting close with a man who she met on Facebook; the relationship turning physical and the guy using photographs of their intimate moments to blackmail her; the family getting to know the whole affair and the police intervening. Now, a senior police officer has chosen to put together such experiences and offer a guide to the children, and their parents, on how to avoid the traps cyber world has readied for them. 

The book Is Your Child Safe?, written by K. Sanjay Kumar Gurudin, an IPS officer from Kerala cadre, is an exhaustive compilation of the arrival of technology in the lives of people, especially the children, the way it can be used and misused, the possible traps and the ways to escape them. Most of the stories are from the experience he has had in his professional life which includes those as district police chief of Kannur and Thiruvanathapuram. Mr Gurudin is at present the commandant of Kerala Armed Police at Kannur. 

It may sound prescriptive but the book looks at the reality: it was easy to monitor the movements of the children in the bygone era but the cyber world has offered them a tool to go out even while physically remaining in their rooms behind the closed doors using smart phones and laptops. The book, in over seven chapters, seeks to empower the parents by updating their knowledge about the cyber world and teaching them how to help the children grow themselves in the cyber world safely.

A chapter is dedicated to the online dangers and threats to the children and enlists the signs if a child has landed in a trap. According to the book, if the child spends longer duration on internet, loses interest in social life, suffers from loss of sleep, faces problems due to lack of concentration, leads a closed solitary life, then beware, it can be due to the negative effect of his/her excessive, and some time, perverted, life in the cyber world. 

The book also gives tips to the parents on how to save their children from addiction to internet. Mr Gurudin has one time-tested advice parents often forget or refuse to go by: talk to the child. That is the best way, according to the book, to start addressing the issue. Deleting useless accounts, turning off unnecessary notifications with their support, preparing a plan for internet usage, using timers in smart phones, imposing a ban on computers in bedrooms and blocking apps in phones and computers are some of the suggestions in the book. It’s a kind of ‘rationing’, but is worthwhile, according to the book.

The book also warns parents against radicalisation of children through internet and also lists out the warning signals in behaviour of youth.  

The book also offers a ready reference on cyber laws. It has incorporated various sections of the laws including the Information Technology Act, Indian penal Code- 1980, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act- 2012, which ensure law and order in the cyber world.  

“The book has gone through an evolution,” Mr Gurudin said. He had brought it out first as a booklet to create awareness among parents. The extensive research that he undertook on the topic later had him conceive it as a book.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is expected to release the book in August. A Malayalam translation of the book, which has already received 1,500 orders, will also be released soon. Publishers in Tamil and Hindi are in talks with Mr Gurudin for translating the book into those languages.