The Internet offers a plethora of information that can be used on both good and bad purposes depending on how one uses it. Therefore, making it a safe place is necessary especially for women and children. Recently, the Women and Child Development ministry in association with Facebook announced contents promoting the safety of women and children will be shared. They will also build digital literacy. Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani made this announcement at Facebook’s South Asia Safety Summit. At the summit that day Irani said,
“While the internet opens doors for women and children to learn and gain knowledge, there is also the responsibility of ensuring their safety and to enable them to express their views without any apprehension. Our constant effort has been to promote the cause of equal opportunity for women and ensure a safe environment for children,”
They plan on launching a comic strip and a series of short videos’, already a comic series #CreateCareConnect by creator @neha.doodles was launched. A video series called Thumbstoppers will be launched by facebook will be launched next year. In Thumbstoppers people from the advertising communities will make short educating videos of 10 seconds to school people on issues like gender equality, domestic violence, and education for a girl child. Facebook announced the launch of a working group, Ideal Internet Consortium that will work on child safety. This group will be led by Aarambh India Initiative. Facebook also said that they have already conducted group discussions with seven focus groups having youths from several cities including Odisha, Tripura, Kerala, and Jharkhand. To make the ground of global digital literacy stronger WCD minister Smriti Irani launched a portal called We Think Digital. They have a target of reaching over 5 million people by 2021. Digital platform these days is the fastest and most widely spread media, and people should be aware of its power. The digital platforms must also keep in mind the different cultural needs of women and children with special needs as it is a vast networking platform that connects millions of people over just one click.
