Dear young friends!

You must be busy enjoying your summer vacations. While some of you are busy travelling, others might be spending more time indoors. And when we spend time indoors, we tend to remain glued to our phones and other gadgets. Along with that, comes a whole lot of issues, including safety and health (mostly eye) issues. What you share online or in the cyber world could prove to be a threat to your safety and well-being.

Now let's understand what's the cyber world. By cyber world or cyber space, I mean "the digital environment consisting of information systems that have spread all over the world, and of space and networks that connect them, or of independent information systems". The internet is often referred to in the concept of cyber space, but the concept also includes telephone, telex, radio and television, which can be used with a remote control, apart from the internet, and sound and images, films, photographs, graphics and books that can be recorded.

In this modern era of globalisation, we are all connected through digitalisation. Even our education system moved to the cyber space amidst the pandemic. You all had online classes and did a lot of online learning. As such, cyber security or staying safe in the cyber world is becoming an important concern. As a country, without strong cyber security, we cannot survive in the global arena. While the job of the nation's security is the government's responsibility, we need to take care of our own individual safety by thinking twice before posting anything online.

Here are a few tips to ensure safety in the cyber world:

1. Stay safe from cyber fraud

According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau, 50,030 cybercrime cases were reported in the year 2020-21 in India. Cyber fraud is the key motive in 30,218 cases recorded in frauds. In India, more than 2200 cyber-attacks are committed per day. So, avoid sharing your ID details like Aadhar card number, bank details of your parents, etc. when you get calls or when you click on links online. Fraudsters try to tempt by saying you've won a lottery, so they need your details. Do not fall for that trap.

2. Your mental health matters

Excessive use of technology may affect your mental health. Using social media constantly may bring feelings of insecurity and inadequacy in your mind. After looking at people's travel/food pictures, you might feel others have perfect lives and start thinking your life is not good enough. However, please remember that whatever you see on social media is not the reality. People might just project they have wonderful lives. But who knows what's going on in their personal life?

3. Maintain your privacy

When you post something online, please make sure you do not give out personal information as it can be used to take undue advantage and may even result in a security threat. If you post your location publicly while on vacation, thieves/burglars might use the situation to their advantage to burgle your house. Also, if you have small siblings, you should not share information about their school route, bus timings, etc. as kidnappers could take undue advantage.

4. Verify before sharing

Before posting any information online or forwarding any message, first verify if the information is true. If you're not sure, please do not post. Wrong information could lead to a lot of damage like breeding disharmony among different groups of people, riots, etc. A sad example is the Nilotpal-Abhijit lynching case of 2018, where two young Assamese boys were killed on the basis of false forwarded messages which wrongly stated that they are child kidnappers. In reality, they were tourists. So always make sure that you do not forward anything that could lead to something like this.

5. Moderation is the key

Excessive use of anything is bad. If you remain glued to gadgets and the online world all the time, it'll affect your health as well as your everyday routine. Your eyesight will become weak and you'll not be able to devote time to your studies and hobbies. It'll waste your valuable time. So set a routine and use gadgets only for a fixed period of time every day. You can set an alarm to keep track of the time spent on gadgets, and on some days, you can try going totally screen-free. Trust me, it'll make you feel better.

Stay safe in the cyber world and share this information with your loved ones.