Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
A QUALITATIVE and quantitative analysis was conducted among 800 adults and 2,600 children aged seven to 18, educationists, representatives of Bahrain's internet industry, government ministries and other organisations.
The study entitled the State of the Nation Review reveals that while internet penetration in the country is very high, internet security awareness appears to be generally very low. Children are ready to take risks and a staggering 43 per cent (compared to nine per cent in Europe) revealed that they had met strangers online.
While most took positive action a significant number of young people did not realise how public and accessible their information was and most do not share their online experience with adults.
Rob Middlehurst, deputy general director, TRA said: "No one wants their child to be cyber bullied, abused or threatened online.
"If it is an issue for one it is an issue for everybody. So we have to be proactive and we can't wait for things to happen.
"Children are imaginative and are very inventive. They will find ways of doing things that we as parents will not necessarily want them to do.
"There is a low level of awareness about what the dangers and risks may be and a low level of infrastructure in place to support victims. 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.
"In April, seven children attempted suicide as a consequence of online activity that was reported.
"Statistically, only less than 25 per cent of all incidents are ever reported. There is an increase in online identity theft and credit card theft.
"The internet is just a facilitator. It is a tool and is not a bad thing.
"There are many things that we can do to protect ourselves, our children and our community to prevent those things from happening."
Bahrain currently has 649,000 internet subscriptions and 200 new subscribers are added every day. There are 235,100 accounts on the social networking site Facebook alone and 1.5 million mobile phones.
However, the TRA chief said that there is a high incidence of pirated software and a very low incidence of virus protection, which results in Bahrain being a generator of spam emails.
Recommendations from the report includes a comprehensive internet safety training programme to be developed for both private and public schools as part of the national curriculum and working with parents to raise awareness about internet safety and about the nature of online behaviour.
Mr Middlehurst added: "The State of the Nation report says right now the dangers and risks to Bahrain are high and we need to bring it down.
"We can never ever remove it because there will be some invention on the internet that will allow these predators to find another way of reaching the vulnerable people. It is organised crime.
"Bahrain will be taking a step further from what internet savvy countries of the world have done.
"They have laws and rules that need updating and refreshing. We are at a point where we are just about to implement those laws and we have the opportunity to shape them to make them fit for many years."
The Government is also creating a special internet council called the Bahrain Council for Child Internet Safety made up of government agencies, TRA, lawmakers, industry and NGOs to ensure that recommendations presented in the State of the Nation Review are implemented without delay, and that the risks identified are mitigated and in many cases eradicated.
Useful links to find out more about the safe use of the internet
There are many useful websites offering excellent advice to parents and students about the safe use of the internet and how to be a good citizen in the digital world. Here are just a few links for you and your children to explore:
Childnet International:
www.childnet-int.org/kia/
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre's website called Think you know?:
www.thinkuknow.co.uk
Safekids:
www.safekids.com/safety-advice-tools/
Cyber Safe Kids:
www.cybersafekids.com.au/2009/10/digicitizen/
