Cyber Smart Heroes Programme: Here’s how an army of thousand-plus volunteers ensures Gen Z is cyber-ready

“During our sessions, we learned new concepts such as virtual filters, social media, and safeguarding ourselves from online hacking, cyberbullying, and the application of AI [artificial intelligence]. Our mentor’s explanation about AI has left me excited and I  crave to expand my knowledge further…” 

The 12-year-old Bengaluru girl’s eyes exuded excitement as she narrated her experience of a session on cyber security that she had recently attended. 

Her mentor, a volunteer from a non-governmental organisation named CRY (Child Rights and You), was instrumental in teaching young adults the importance of using the digital and online spaces safely and securely. 

The session was a part of The Cyber Smart Heroes Programme — a volunteer-driven pan-India initiative spearheaded by CRY, to reach out to the school-going children to help them understand the nuances, opportunities, and risks of the online platforms and make them ‘digital-ready’ to sail through the cyberspace.

To provide children with indispensable wisdom about cyber safety and security, the programme continued for nine months and helped 58,838 school-goers from 12 states in getting skilled to ensure their cyber security.

‘Cyber Smart Heroes Programme’

In this tech-savvy era, children seem to take to the cyber world faster than their school lessons. While this opens a new horizon of information for them, unknown perils lurk in the bush they are oblivious to. 

The need of the hour is to educate the kids about how to protect themselves and further spread this awareness amongst their peers.

This murky situation also finds mention in the findings of the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) report titled Crime in India 2022. 

According to the NCRB report, the total number of cases in the country where children have been victims of cybercrimes stood at an alarming 1,823, posting a 32 per cent increase on the previous year’s count which was 1,376 incidents in 2021.

It’s been kind of a déjà vu for us — a study conducted by CRY and CNLU (Chanakya National Law University, Patna) in 2022, titled ‘POCSO and Beyond: Understanding Online Safety during COVID’ (released on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the POCSO Act, 2012) anticipated a nearly identical scenario as the subsequently released NCRB report. 

Cyber crisis in numbers

Almost one-third (33.2 per cent) of the responding parents in the internal study revealed that while surfing through the cyberspaces their children had indeed encountered strangers seeking friendships, asking for personal and family details, and even discussing explicit sexual topics. 

There were multiple worrying insights that the study offered.

Among the respondents, teachers, along with parents, documented a staggering 497 incidents related to Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA), covering various forms such as bullying, sharing sexual content, and the distribution of inappropriate or pornographic content. 

The majority of cases (27 per cent) were reported on social media platforms, with individual phone numbers (26 per cent) being the second most common source. 

Online classes accounted for 11 per cent of cases, while formal WhatsApp groups created by the school accounted for 21 per cent. Also, chat rooms among students at the school accounted for 15 per cent of reported cases.

The OCSEA study findings were crucial to pave the way for the ‘Cyber Smart Heroes Programme’ undertaken by CRY. And, the success of the programme was achieved by embedding a vital element into the initiative’s fabric: our young and ever-energetic volunteers, whose dedication and hard work breathed life into the programme. 

Findings from the field 

The programme sought to examine pre- and post-programme data to gauge the change in children's knowledge levels, and the results were encouraging!

In the wake of the Cyber Smart Heroes Programme, there was a 20 per cent surge in the number of children able to recognise cybercrime and cyberbullying. 

Moreover, there was a 12 per cent increase in the number of children who could identify what constitutes a strong password.

Additionally, there was a 13 per cent increase in the number of children who could identify cyber harassment. 

The positive findings from the programme’s analysis, before and after its implementation, were echoed by Namrata, a volunteer who participated in the programme.

“It’s extremely rewarding that I have been able to contribute to the Cyber Safety Module. The module’s structure and presentation made it easy for us to explain the concept, and children’s inquisitiveness made it even more enjoyable,” she said.

The excitement resonated across 274 schools in 12 states, including the government, semi-aided, and private institutions for awareness sessions. The initiative’s true power came from its volunteer-led intervention method.

The programme was driven by a committed and duly trained army of more than 1,200 CRY volunteers, who passionately worked to connect with school children across the urban and peri-urban setups. 

The spirit resonated with teachers too, who found the sessions highly valuable for the children.

“The digital world has become an integral part of our lives, as in the COVID era, the entire educational transaction was shifted to the digital space. I strongly believe that implementing a cyber security awareness programme is crucial at this juncture. The session impressed me with its systematic approach, providing smart modules and animated videos that aided the children in comprehending and absorbing the topics,” said the headmistress of West Barisha Kamala Vidyamandir, Kolkata where we held a workshop. 

The collaboration with Nyaaya, SIMHA (School Initiative for Mental Health Advocacy), and Cyber Security Centre of Excellence (CS-CoE) as the key knowledge partners in the programme was instrumental in our success. 

Anisha Gopi, Team Lead at Nyaaya, strongly emphasised the point. 

“As an organisation committed to demystifying legal information, the collaboration with CRY was extremely meaningful for us because we were able to prepare and protect children from internet-based abuse. CRY's expansive reach among the most vulnerable tiers of the society was the ideal fit for Nyaaya to take its content to where the audiences are,” she said. 

The Cyber Smart Heroes Programme has effectively demonstrated the importance of working together to provide children with the necessary knowledge and skills to safely navigate the online world. The response and excitement of the mentors and the participants were testaments that when we join forces with a shared purpose, we can have a profound influence on the future of our children. 

The author is the CEO of non-governmental organisation Child Rights and You (CRY)

Views expressed are author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth