TRA Bahrain Role on Internet Safety and Child Protection Online ITU Regional Workshop on Policy Advocacy & Capacity Building in Child Online Protection for the Arab Region Muscat – Oman, 30 th - 31 st of Oct, 2011

Telecommunications Regulatory Authority – Bahrain

Bahrain’s Market 195,000 Fixed Lines 78,000 Wimax subscribers Over 1.5 million Mobile phone users 184,000 Broadband subscribers 500,000+ Internet Users

Internet Growth and Population Stats. In Bahrain YearUsersPopulati on % Pop.Usage Source ,000699,4005.7%ITU ,700707, %ITU ,000718, %ITU ,900728, %ITU 500,000+ Internet Users

Online Safety Initiative

TRA Online Safety Initiative Online Safety Objective Promote ICT and Digital Media Literacy Raise level of ICT Literacy Minimize the risk of harm of the Internet Safe ICT Harbor for Children and Adults Promote Bahrain’s Position in the Worlds Internet Ecosystem To Facilitate growth in the home grown ICT Sector

Summary of TRA’s Role in Promoting Online Safety since State of the Nation Review of ICT safety April 2010 Conference on online Child Safety –International and regional experts attended –13 key recommendations –World first MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between ISPs and TRA 3.SafeSurf Art Competition Dec SafeSurf Interactive DVD Tutorial Jan 2012

1. State of the Nation Review of Internet Safety “Road Map for the Future”

About State of the Nation Review of Internet Safety It is the first comprehensive review providing in depth analysis of Internet safety issues amongst adults and children. It sets out recommendations to ensure the safety of young people and adults and raise the levels of ICT literacy. Mass market questionnaire aimed at identifying what people do online and how they feel about doing it – 800 respondents School questionnaire asking what children do online, the risks they face and their level of knowledge on safety issues – 2558 respondents Focus groups with 150 children Stakeholder interviews with Government's, ISPs, NGOs etc. Comprehensive review of ICT safety ecosystem.

Finding’s 1. Adults Generally experienced Internet users High level of trust Frequently exposed to negative online experiences. No sources of reliable information to consult regarding Internet advice. Internet security awareness low % % % % % 100%

Findings Children Internet usage on average 2.5 – 3.5 hours every day Homework, playing games or to interact with other people. Use apps include instant messaging, chat rooms, games, blogging and Social Networking Sites (SNS) “There is no real understanding of what is meant by personal information” y14-16 y17-18 y Male %69%47% Female %31%53% Total100% MuslimChristianHinduOther Public %001% Private %24%4%7% Total %13%3%4%

Findings - 2 Older children (14 – 18) take the most risks; sharing personal information with strangers and opening attachments from an unknown sources. 43% (1090 young people) had MET with an online contact who they had not met in person before. “Reluctant to seek adult advice” 2. Children

Findings - 3 Children do not share their online experience with adults. Most parents do not participate in online activities with their children. Unsupervised access to the internet and there was little significant variation by nationality, religion, age or gender. Cyberbullying a problem identified by young people and teachers Cyberbullying or ‘teacher humiliation’ on SNS is becoming problematic. Teachers feel deskilled as many young people are more computer literate than they are. No formal internet safety training at schools. 2. Children

Findings “Government entities, Education, Health, NGO’s” There is currently no legislative framework that either seeks to protect children from Internet related or other forms of abuse, or that seeks to protect adults from cybercrime (other than basic e-transaction legislation passed in 2002) A legislative framework in the child protection area which includes online ‘luring’ (grooming) and indecent child image production and collection is proposed. Cybercrime legislation has been proposed. There is a strong opposition to blanket blocking of the Internet and attempts to further control Internet usage. Educational awareness training for parents and children was instead strongly advocated. 3. Stakeholders

Stakeholders Recommendations - 1 National media campaign to raise awareness should accompany training programmes for children and parents. e –safety Committee be set up to plan and implement the Kingdoms Internet safety strategy. The Committee should include a broad range of representatives from the government, NGOs, higher education, TRA, ISPs and community group.

Stakeholders Recommendations - 2 A council should be established to set out and ensure implementation of the Kingdom’s child e-safety strategy. The Bahrain Council for Child Internet Safety (BCCIS)(or similar) should include representatives from:

2. SafeSurf Conference

SAFESURF Conference TRA hosted the Gulf’s first Online Child Safety conference. The event was the first event in the SafeSurf Bahrain campaign. Its aim was to start the process of creating a national consensus for online safety, by engaging key stakeholders in the issues of raising ICT literacy and online adult and child internet safety, or the State of the Nation Review of Online Safety. MOU At the closing of the conference all the Internet Service Providers signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will facilitate the implementation of the conferences recommendations and foster a new secured era in the ICT in Bahrain.

3. SafeSurf Interactive DVD Tutorial for Online Safety

SafeSurf DVD Educate & Aware Raise level of ICT Literacy DVD Objective Antivirus Software Help identify Risks Make it Part of everyone's Life Positive Experience Explore the Benefits “The DVD will develop and promote ICT digital media literacy and will become the enabler into making Bahrain the #1 in the region. Will raise the awareness on how to interact with other internet users and will teach them to use the internet in order to create, to share, to participate, to communicate and to transact Safely and Securely”

DVD Features The DVD will be narrated in the top 5 languages that are used in the Kingdom of Bahrain with additional resources available in all languages, catering for those who might be illiterate and not able to read. 1 st of it kind Interactive Narration + Subtitles Platform neutral Very Informative & Useful resource Translation & Narration Recording 1.Arabic 2.English 3.Malayalam 4.Bengali 5.Urdu

Snapshots of the DVD

SafeSurf Art Competition

Contact Details For more information about TRA Bahrain please visit Thank You Mariam Almannai, ICT Projects Specialist Tel: ,