MDA actively promotes media literacy to ensure that the public is equipped with skills to be discerning about content on various media platforms.
More than 58,000 participants had hopped
onto
the cyber wellness roving bus at more
than 100 schools and public venues.
In 2011, MDA promoted empowerment tools that parents can use to guide their children towards safer use of the media and the Internet. MDA launched an online portal and distributed handbooks for parents on classification tools and cyber wellness, and even introduced a hotline number with experts on call for advice.
In February 2011, MDA launched a nationwide cyber wellness campaign to promote the discerning and responsible use of digital media.
Targeted at parents and students, this campaign included a roving cyber wellness bus, the online Digital Diary competition for primary school students to share their online experiences, as well as the launch of a cyber wellness resource portal, CyberWellness@SG.
All three proved to be hits. By end of March 2012, more than 58,000 participants had hopped onto the roving bus at more than 100 schools and public venues, while the Digital Diary competition attracted 575 entries from 21 primary schools, with many sharing their experiences of being exposed to Internet risks.
Meanwhile, the Cyberwellness@SG portal, garnered more than 213,000 page views from more than 43,000 unique visitors, who were mostly from Singapore.
MDA is also a co-secretariat of the Inter-Ministry Cyber Wellness Steering Committee (ICSC). In the year of review, ICSC supported campaigns and programmes which reached out to 93,000 students, parents and teachers in public education on cyber wellness.
To further protect children from unsuitable content, MDA started promoting Internet filters and parental-lock systems for pay-TV services in March 2011. It also made it compulsory for Internet service providers to promote such filters at the point of sale or when customers are renewing their broadband contracts.
In addition, MDA supported industry-led events like “StarHub Smart Security Carnival”, which aimed to create a safer online experience for Singaporeans by promoting the adoption of Internet filtering software. The event was held in July 2011 and attracted about 2,000 people.