THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The police department will join hands with child psychologists and other domain experts to set up a digital de-addiction centre to address the growing over-dependence of children on digital gadgets and online games. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday announced the formation of the centre by the police’s Cyberdome, but stopped short of giving any additional details about the project. Cyberdome nodal officer ADGP Manoj Abraham said the police force would chalk out its own plan to set up the centre, as no such centres were working on a large scale anywhere in the country.
“We are pioneering the initiative. Hence, we have to do things on our own. There are no other ventures which we can emulate and we will be moving ahead with our own concept and ideas,” said Manoj. He added that the department would avail of the services of the domain experts, such as the child psychologists to run the facility.
He said the officers across the state have come across scenarios such as suicides of children owing to their digital addiction and that have prompted the department to formulate an action plan to deal with the challenge. “We are going to do this as no other department is doing it now on a larger scale. The challenge of digital addiction is so enormous that all the agencies and departments will have to step up their efforts to deal with it.”
Meanwhile, the child rights activists felt the police department should inter-link with competent NGOs to make the project useful. “Setting up such a centre requires professional expertise. Hence, the police should have a tie-up with all relevant organisations that could be of help,” said former Child Rights Commission member Adv J Sandhya.
However, she cautioned that the cops should ensure the privacy of those undergoing de-addiction courses. “The police have to run the project in a discreet manner and without compromising the identity of the attending children. How effectively they can do it is a matter of concern,” she added. Fr P D Thomas of Don Bosco Sneha Bhavan also said the cops should keep NGOs that have been involved with child rights in the loop while implementing the project.
Perturbed by the surge in incidents of anti-social elements sharing obscene content with the participants of online classes, the Child Rights Protection Commission has asked the General Education Department and the police to take adequate steps to secure the online platforms. Commission member K Naseer, in his directive, suggested that the school authorities should revise the invitation links sent to the students periodically and passwords should be provided to the attendees to prevent unauthorised access for outsiders. The passwords and links should be separate for different classes.
Teachers, principals to coordinate
The schoolteachers should coordinate with the principals and inform the police if they notice outsiders accessing the classes. The state police chief should issue a directive to the station house officer to take prompt action against the intruders.