The world has had to contend with the ‘new normal’ of COVID-19 where about 80 percent of meetings and activities these days are all virtually held online. As a result of this, all kinds of people have become more vulnerable and exposed to the negativities of the internet.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a massive paradigm shift from face-to-face to a large number of increased online activities. From all indications, children obviously turned out to be the most vulnerable consumers of some negative influences such as cyberbullying, use of abusive and vulgar language, uncontrolled viewing of adult materials and contents, to mention but a few.
These activities have more often than not threatened cybersafety. It is against this background that Ghana Internet Safety Foundation (GISF), has received support from Microsoft Volunteers to launch and embark on its CyberSAFE Programme for selected schools in Ghana.
According to the Executive Director of GISF, Emmanuel Adinkrah, the CyberSAFE Programme is tailored to help create awareness about cyberbullying and how to stop it. “Some of the schools partaking in this programme are Ridge School, Headlines Educational Complex, Bernstel School and Atwima Kwanwoma cluster of schools”, he revealed.
Mr. Adinkrah, on behalf of the governing board of GISF, expressed his profound gratitude to Microsoft Corporation for the support.
Stephen Suglo, Microsoft Software Engineer, speaking on behalf of Microsoft, expressed delight and satisfaction in GISF activities. “Indeed, we consider this as one of those Microsoft Giving Initiatives, particularly, as a vehicle through which Microsoft impacts the world”, he said.
On his part, Gabriel Ofori Appiah, the Chief Operations Officer of GISF, intimated that the need to have a grassroots approach in tackling issues of cyberbullying and/or online safety.
