VIJAYAWADA: As part of month-long awareness campaign ‘e-Rakshabandhan’, being jointly organised by Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (CID), state police and Cyber Peace Foundation, a programme to address the effects of online games and illegal downloads on youths, was organised here on Saturday.
During his address, Nitish Chandan, training and policy manager of Cyber Peace Foundation, said children, as well as adults, getting addicted to online games was concerning, and cited some such popular games that were listed by the World health Organization (WHO).
“Not just bad content and language, children may also fall prey to financial frauds and other scams regularly occurring in the online world,” he noted, and discussed safer ways to access and download games, songs and movies, amid other things.
“Downloading free content online can affect your devices. Free links can send harmful and irrelevant files to users, and leak private information to scammers. One should avoid downloading unnecessary applications.”
Chandan advised parents to use parental control apps that help in monitoring children’s online activity and prevents them from making online purchases without the knowledge of their guardians.
In the workshop, CID ADGP PV Sunil Kumar said, “Ten per cent of mobile users are addicted to online games. They can seek help from psychiatrists if they feel that their addiction is becoming severe. For children, parents can restrict their online activity by encouraging them to read books and solve puzzles.”