Question NW687 to the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services
11 April 2016 - NW687
America, Mr D to ask the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services
(a) What plans are in place to expand (i) the exposure and (ii) work of the Child Online Protection programme at schools during the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and across and (b) in which provinces is this going to take place; (2) what (a) training workshops and/or (b) training support is being given to educators in all (i) government and (ii) private schools to (aa) alert them to the dangers of online child abuse and (bb) how they can mitigate against this?
Reply:
(1)(a) The DTPS will increase the number of schools per province from one (1) to two (2) as reflected in quarterly targets in the 2016/17 Business Plan. The Child Online Protection Programme also includes the e-Parenting Programme and in this regard the DTPS intends to develop an interactive e-platform for parents and an e-guide for parents to capacitate them to cope with issues of exposure of the children to harmful content online.
(1)(b) The Child Online Protection Programme will be implemented in all nine provinces and in two towns in each province. The e-Parenting Interactive Sessions will be held in all provinces except the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal as these provinces were covered in the 2015/2016 financial year.
(2)(a)(i)The DTPS will be hosting School based Awareness Workshops in eighteen (18) schools with grade 9 to 11 learners, at least two hundred and fifty (250) learners per school, and their respective teachers, at least six (6) teachers per school. The content of the workshops includes the following topics: Dangers of being Online, Safety Tips for being Online, Cyberbulling and Sexting, Identity Theft and the impact of creating a negative or positive digital footprint for the individual and the country.
(2)(a)(ii) No training workshops are planned to be implemented in private schools.
(2)(b)(i) The learners and teachers are given content and information in terms of web based resources that may be accessed in order to assist them to mitigate against the online abuse of children.
(2)(b)(ii) No training support is planned to be given to educators in private schools.