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TEACHERS are teaming up with the country's telecom watchdog to reinforce messages of responsible 'netizenship' and to alert pupils about the dangers of cyber crime.
It follows the attempted suicide of seven children in Bahrain who were bullied mercilessly online and investigators believe the number of victims could be far greater.
Proactive measures by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) include distributing free CDs and memory sticks containing tutorials on staying safe on the internet alongside free anti-virus software from Microsoft.
The initiative coincides with the publication of the results of a comprehensive study entitled the State of the Nation Review, conducted in the kingdom to identify the risks of using the internet to adults and children.
Schools are communicating with parents through newsletters; messages are getting reinforced through special assemblies, classroom circle time, presentations and discussions. Many have an 'acceptable use policy' in place for parents to sign and agree to.
Jack Higbee, an educational technologist at Bahrain School, in Juffair, said: "Students get 'grade appropriate' content. We use iSafe and CyberSmart! (web-based cyber safety curriculum) that helps our students understand the different issues such as ID theft, private and public information.
"Additional methods we use to promote cyber safety are assemblies, peer mentoring, net-buddies - pairing two students together when doing online research - and awareness training and home internet safety sessions for parents.
"Before students are allowed to do online research at school, they receive preliminary training on proper research techniques, copyright laws, online authenticity, restricted access to personally identifying information, how to respond to cyber bullying and what to do if a site they visit is blocked."
The school also maintains internet filters that allow only acceptable content from being displayed. All internet traffic and computer use is monitored and students are not allowed to use the internet anywhere in the school whilst unsupervised by adults.
Mr Higbee added: "While we are not responsible for what our students and parents do online in their own time, we hope that the lessons they learn here help them to be responsible users of the cyber resources they have available."
Echoing the message, Nick Wilson, head of senior school at St Christopher's School in Isa Town, said: "We believe that internet safety cannot start too soon!
"This year, for example, pupils in Year 5 and 6 (10- and 11-year-olds) have already been thinking about their own use of the internet, learning how they can take steps to avoid becoming victims of cyber bullying, looking at bias on websites and they have been casting a critical eye on how websites can be created for positive and negative purposes.
"The issues regarding internet safety have been addressed in several presentations to students led by senior teachers in the Senior School. The key message was essentially about students being responsible and taking responsibility for their individual uses of the internet."
The school's ICT leaders Lee Churchill and Nicola Smith who attended the TRA conference on internet safety in the summer have updated and improved the ICT curriculum followed at the school.
Mr Wilson added: "The school recognised this was important as much of the recommended schemes had been written prior to the widespread use of the internet. The guidelines they worked on together have now been included in the new St Chris ICT schemes of work which have also been adopted by the infant and junior schools."
