MoU Signed To Conduct Digital Literacy And Safety Sessions

Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) and the district administration Lahore on Saturday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on a series of upcoming digital safety and literacy sessions for young adults titled, ‘Hamara Internet Mahfooz Internet’

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Oct, 2023) Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) and the district administration Lahore on Saturday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on a series of upcoming digital safety and literacy sessions for young adults titled, ‘Hamara Internet Mahfooz Internet’.

Deputy Commissioner Lahore Rafia Haider and Executive Director DRF Nighat Dad signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations.

As Pakistan's digital transformation accelerates, the DRF has recognized the critical need for digital literacy amongst young adults. Millions of Pakistan's young people are active internet users and are unaware of the emerging digital threats they face on the internet.

These series of workshops come under the flagship project of Hamara Internet. Through these workshops, the DRF aims to educate and build the capacity of young adults particularly, in public schools of Lahore.

On this occasion, the DC and Executive Director DRF shed light on the importance of this collaboration for public schools in Lahore’s district.

The DC said that this was a great initiative particularly for public sector schools since conversations around online safety and digital literacy were still relatively new and used to happen in private schools mostly.

We hope these sessions will be a learning curve for students and teachers who we plan to engage through the Hamara Internet project, she said.

DRF’s Executive Director Nighat Dad said that this had been a passion project for DRF for quite some time now since we wanted to normalize conversations around digital rights for everyone and not just a few. We see this as the first step of many of educating people regarding their online safety and ensuring that hamara (our) internet is safe for all, she said and added that through this pilot project, the DRF aimed to work with the DC office to build the capacity of students and teachers alike on key digital literacy themes like online safety, ethics of using social media, misinformation and disinformation and support mechanisms in place for young adults in case of cyberbullying and harassment.

The Digital Rights Foundation is a registered research-based NGO in Pakistan. Founded in 2012, DRF focuses on ICTs to support human rights, inclusiveness, democratic processes, and digital governance. DRF works on issues of online free speech, privacy, data protection and online violence against women.