Google Educates Future National Youth Ambassadors On Online Safety Awareness

In conjunction with Safer Internet Day, Google Malaysia held a workshop and an experiential booth at the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya, as part of Malaysian Youth @ Safer Internet Day 2020 (MY@SID) to highlight Internet safety tips based on these themes: 1. Security, 2. Privacy, 3. Family Safety and 4. Misinformation.

The event saw the participation of over 100 selected youth across Malaysia who had converged to discuss the latest trends, risks and solutions related to the Internet, while enabling them to become a new batch of digitally fluent young Malaysian Internet leaders themselves.

Google shared the importance of maintaining Security by encouraging students to take the Security Checkup, a free service that helps users identify and learn about the settings that will boost their account’s security. Students were also taught on multiple tips to secure their accounts such as 2-Step Verification, enabling lock screens, and other basic security tips. It was also highlighted that downloading from secure and trusted sources paired with regular updating of the operating system and apps also help reduce vulnerabilities.

With the internet serving as a platform for anyone to share just about anything, it is even more crucial for one to be more Privacy savvy. In the workshop, students were taught to take charge of their data by managing their data control settings related to their Google accounts. They also learnt how to identify and avoid phishing attempts through a fun quiz site, and shared best practices to be mindful in sharing personally identifiable information online.

When it comes to online threats, no one is more vulnerable than children. The students were exposed to ways to help their younger siblings and relatives to stay safe online. For the Family Safety aspect, students were encouraged to use Google’s Family Link for minors under 13, through which they are able to create kid-friendly, guardian-managed Google accounts that put in place content control and activities monitoring. It was also stressed that good and open communication is important when educating young children about Internet safety, allowing kids to freely ask questions and share their own online experience to help identify potential issues that can be prevented.

Last but not least, Google addressed the need to be more critical in information sharing and having awareness to guard against the prevalence of Misinformation. Google shared tips on managing and verifying information that students might come across online with simple steps such as taking a minute to check for reliable sources, tracking for full news stories, and separating opinions from facts.

At the end of each topic presentation and sharing, the students were treated to interactive quizzes and games to test their knowledge and reinforce the shared safety tips, while scoring some Google schwags in the process. Upon completion of this programme, the youth participants will be recognized as the National Youth Ambassadors for Safer Internet Day Malaysia 2020.

Google Cafe, or better known as Gcafe, is a series of sessions organised by Google to educate the various public on tools that are useful in real-life daily tasks. Prior to this Gcafe, Google has organised an Accessibility Google Cafe for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community,  an online safety Google Cafe for students of the Tunku Abdul Rahman University College, and a parents-focused Google Cafe held in collaboration with Makchic, just to name a few.