Written by: Ndumiso Nxumalo

EThekwini Municipality in partnership with Imagine Durban and Safer Cities Department hosted an open forum at the Botanic Garden Visitors Centre on Monday to close the gap against cyber-crimes.

The main aim of the open forum was to create an awareness and advice people on how they can avoid scams on the internet.

Director of the e-Skills CoLab at the Durban University of Technology, Dr Surendra Thakur, advised those present at the forum to be conscious and keep a close eye on their children’s activities on the internet.

“When children are on their computers parents might think that they are busy with educational things (however) that is not the case. In most occasions some children end up being hooked in dangerous internet scams,” said Dr Thakur.

“Facebook is a social platform where everyone has access to your profile, so you should be careful of what you post because in the future it might be used against you,” added Dr Thakur.

A grade 11 student from Adams College Muziwakhe Mthembu, 17, said that the forum helped him learn how to keep his privacy so that it will not affect him in the future.

“I so wish that there were many students here so that they will learn from what Dr Thakur said and I will spread the word to my friends and my school mates on the consequences of publicising their lives on social Media,” said Mthembu.

South Africa is a developing country and regulating the public’s activities on the internet might be seen as an invasion of privacy. Fortunately many social media applications have high security features in place to protect its users.

Parents have been urged to be aware of age restrictions that are in place for all social media platforms and that none are open to children under the age of 13 years.

*Picture: Dr Surendra Colin Thakur at Botanic Garden during the open forum that aims to close the gap against cyber crimes