RECOGNIZING the threats to the safety of children in the cyberworld, the Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday welcomed a Public Advisory of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) on the Conduct of Online Classes Using Video Conferencing Services.
“The Public Advisory on the Conduct of Online Classes Using Video Conferencing Services by the Department of Justice Office of Cybercrime is a welcome contribution, coming as it does from an office of the DOJ with expertise on the cyberworld and combating cybercrime. The advisory is seriously being considered as we finalize DepEd’s supplemental child protection policy, which DepEd aims to issue in the near future,” the DepEd said.
The DepEd stressed that it also promotes the right of the child against all forms of violence and abuse through its Child Protection Policy under DepEd Order No. 40, s. 2012. The policy aims to nurture learners in a safe environment not only in the physical sphere but also the cyber space.
“DepEd acknowledges that the cyberworld offers limitless opportunities for learning and provides valuable avenues for communication and socialization. At the same time, DepEd recognizes that there are threats and dangers to the privacy, security, and safety of children in the cyberworld, especially during this time of the Covid-19 pandemic when online learning is one of the learning delivery modalities and children spend considerable time online,” the DepEd statement read.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the DepEd said that, in collaboration with its partners, it had been stepping up efforts to address various online risks through the development of cybersafety lesson plans, the conduct of cybersafety trainings, and dissemination of cybersafety awareness and advocacy materials.
DOJ advisory
The Department of Justice-Office of Cybercrime (DOJ-OCC) on Wednesday warned of possible security risks, abuse and harmful contents in the use of videoconferencing services for online classes.
In a public advisory, DOJ-OOC Officer-in-Charge lawyer Charito Zamora issued several guidelines for parents, school administrators and the public in general on how to protect children from online abuse and harmful contents during online classes amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“While videoconferencing services open doors to new opportunities that make access to education easy, application of information and communication technology in the conduct of online classes can cause many security risks, such as loss of confidentiality, availability, and integrity of computer data, as well as the exposure of students to abusive strangers and harmful online contents,” the advisory read.
To prevent children from online abuses, the DOJ-OCC advised school administrators: (1) not to share meeting room credentials, both the ID and the password to the public; (2) always set meeting configurations as follows: accept meeting participants’ request to join individually, provide a standard naming instruction for the participants, start meeting with participants’ video off, require a password from the participants, mute participants upon entry and disable desktops and screen share for participants who are not assigned in the virtual meeting room as hosts (3) do not allow participants to join before the host, rename themselves, send messages to other participants, allow participants to access the file transfer and share their screens, allow participants to use annotation tools to add information to shared screens and share whiteboard during the meeting, and allow users to change their background with any selected image (4) never leave students alone in virtual classroom and (5) always update the application you downloaded to its latest version.
Meanwhile, parents must teach children to be discerning of information and contents online to reduce their risk of falling victim to online abuse and cyber attacks.
“Parents are encouraged to promote and implement proper etiquettes to be observed by children under their supervision. There is still no substitute for parental involvement and supervision when it comes to digital literacy and good cyber citizenship,” it added.
The DOJ-OOC advised the public to immediately report any irregularities or unwanted incidents during the conduct of online classes to law enforcement agencies so that it can be properly investigated.
Pandemic context
At present, DepEd is adapting its child protection measures to the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“DepEd is in the final stages of developing its supplement to the DepEd Child Protection Policy or what we call the Policy on Child Protection in Education in the Context of the Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP).”
With the support of UNICEF Philippines and Stairway Foundation, Inc., DepEd conducted consultations and focus group discussions with representatives from the DepEd offices in the central, regional, and division offices, public and private schools, other government agencies and local governments, NGOs, international organizations, parents, and the learners themselves.
The supplemental child protection policy aims to address matters pertaining to the prevention, detection, reporting, and handling of child protection issues in the context of home-based learning, whether the learning delivery modality is modular, online, or blended learning.
In finalizing the supplemental policy, DepEd is considering the necessity and practicability of recommended measures, mindful of the different circumstances of learners, teachers, and schools during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The supplemental policy also aims to strengthen the existing mechanisms on child protection in the DepEd, particularly the schools’ Child Protection Committees.
“The cyberworld being borderless, we all need to work together to ensure the safety of children in the cyberworld as much as in the physical world, as they navigate both these worlds and grow while enjoying their right to be free from harm and abuse. We need a whole-of-society approach, not just school interventions, to effectively and consistently overcome the attacks on the dignity and safety of the child in the cyber world,” the DepEd stressed.
The DepEd stressed that “a child in the cyber world is a whole person with dignity as much as a child in the physical world . . . We should thus respect and protect every child wherever he or she may be.”