While cy­ber­crime con­tin­ues to be a con­cern for the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Kei­th Scot­land is sug­gest­ing that it may be time for T&T to im­ple­ment laws that pre­vent chil­dren un­der the age of 16 from hav­ing ac­cess to so­cial me­dia. 

Al­though it has not been an of­fi­cial gov­ern­ment pro­pos­al, Scot­land was think­ing out loud as he spoke at a cy­ber­crime pre­ven­tion train­ing sym­po­sium for teach­ers, par­ents and chil­dren held at the Hilton Ho­tel, Port of Spain, yes­ter­day. 

Ad­dress­ing stu­dents and ed­u­ca­tion stake­hold­ers at the sym­po­sium host­ed by the Na­tion­al Par­ent Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion (NPTA), Scot­land said it was the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of chil­dren to be­ware of on­line preda­tors as well as teach­ers and par­ents to mon­i­tor what was hap­pen­ing in cy­ber­space. 

Scot­land said, “I was read­ing this week in Aus­tralia, there’s a move now to leg­is­late against chil­dren and teenagers be­ing on­line and hav­ing what you all have now, Tik­Tok, un­til you reach the age of 16. That is some­thing that we may have to look at in Trinidad and To­ba­go.” 

“Re­mem­ber when you are on­line on your de­vices, once you press send, you can­not re­trieve it. Once you press send, it no longer be­comes yours. It is out there as some­thing that will last un­less you get it out? You can’t, can you? So be care­ful ... Cy­ber­crim­i­nals are what they are. Make no mis­take, that is what they are. They are preda­tors. They can ma­nip­u­late and de­ceive you in­to en­gag­ing in dan­ger­ous be­hav­iours on­line, in­clud­ing lur­ing you in­to harm­ful sit­u­a­tions that can en­dan­ger your safe­ty ... Re­mem­ber, you have not met that per­son. The per­son could be old­er. The per­son could be some­one who has in­ten­tions for you that you don’t have for your­selves, and that is why, teach­ers, your role be­comes even more crit­i­cal, and the as­so­ci­a­tion has to be­come more ac­tive in en­gag­ing your mem­bers to be the watch­dogs.” 

“Teach­ers and par­ents, this is where your role comes in as the gate­keep­ers. You can on­ly do that much dur­ing the time that you in­ter­act with your stu­dents, but cer­tain­ly you can be ob­ser­vant and cer­tain­ly you can take ac­tion in or­der to pro­tect the young ones who are un­der your care, and if you find that there is a wor­ry­ing trend, then you call in the par­ents,” he added.

Over a week ago, Aus­tralian Prime Min­is­ter An­tho­ny Al­banese an­nounced a move to leg­is­late for a ban on so­cial me­dia for chil­dren un­der 16. Al­banese had said,

"So­cial me­dia is do­ing harm to our kids and I'm call­ing time on it." He cit­ed the risks to phys­i­cal and men­tal health of chil­dren from ex­ces­sive so­cial me­dia use, in par­tic­u­lar the risks to girls from harm­ful de­pic­tions of body im­age, and misog­y­nist con­tent aimed at boys.

Mean­while, NPTA pres­i­dent Wal­ter Stew­art al­so said the as­so­ci­a­tion is con­cerned about the dev­as­tat­ing ef­fects of cy­ber­crime. 

He said cy­ber­bul­ly­ing aware­ness was every­body’s busi­ness, and that’s why the as­so­ci­a­tion part­nered with the Unit­ed Na­tions Of­fice on Drugs and Crime to host yes­ter­day’s sym­po­sium. 

In Oc­to­ber, 15-year-old Jay­den Lalchan end­ed his life af­ter al­leged­ly en­dur­ing, what his par­ents called, years of bul­ly­ing at St Stephen's Col­lege. The in­ci­dent raised na­tion­al con­cern about the im­pacts of bul­ly­ing and cy­ber­bul­ly­ing.

Guardian Me­dia al­so reached out to the TTPS’ Cy­ber and So­cial Me­dia Unit for sta­tis­tics on cy­ber­crime, but up to press time no in­for­ma­tion was forth­com­ing. 

The TTPS said in­for­ma­tion could be pro­vid­ed to­day.