STUDENT leaders who recently formed the Cyber Teens Responsible Leaders (CTRL) are asking the city governments of Cebu, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Talisay to take measures to protect children from cyber bullying.
The group proposed intervention in three areas.
First, the city governments are requested to mandate the establishment by educational institutions of a cyber literacy program in their curriculum and inclusion of cyber abuse prevention and intervention in their policies.
A second suggestion is for the city governments to regularly monitor and hold accountable Internet cafes and information technology (IT) vendors that allow minors to overstay, access adult online content and purchase mature video games.
The group also asked that the city governments empower families by holding seminars on responsible child-rearing practices that do not allow over exposure of children to multimedia.
The group, accompanied by Fr. Fidel Orendain, SDB of the Child Protection Network Foundation, Inc. and co-organizer of CTRL, read their manifesto before the Mandaue City Council recently.
Councilor Nenita Ceniza-Layese, chairperson of the committee on women and children, assured that the council will pass an ordinance to help stop cyber bullying.
The group said teenagers are the most vulnerable to cyber bullying, which causes “insecurities, pessimism, vamping, depression and even acts that harm oneself.”
“We see that cyber-bullying is an inhumane, intolerable act and, if left unattended, will eventually damage more people and teens like us,” the group stated in their manifesto.
CTRL members signed the manifesto on Oct. 18, at the end of the two-day “Shift, CTRL, Del” conference organized by CPN Foundation, United Nations Children’s Fund and the Salesians of St. John Bosco.
Fr. Orendain, in an interview, said bullying should be addressed because it has led to suicides.
He lamented the youth’s “over exposure” to the Internet and technology.
“Addiction now is not just substance abuse. Now, it’s turning to technology addiction,” he said.
He said cyber addiction has become a more serious problem in schools now than violent fraternities or sororities.