The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has urged users of social networking sites and guardians to safeguard privacy on social networking sites to protect children from exposure to blackmail. 

This announcement was made at a symposium attended by the TRA on online blackmail. It was organised in cooperation with the Dubai Police's Al Amin Service and the Community Development Authority in Dubai at Rashidiya Majlis to educate parents about online blackmail involving children, which results from the unsafe use of the Internet in general and social networking sites in particular. 

The TRA directed mothers to use parental control applications and review games and applications pre-loaded on smart devices. 

The symposium covered four major themes, technical, security, legal and social issues, in addition to discussing the Child Protection Act axis. It highlighted the most important procedures to be followed by parents in protecting their children from electronic extortion attempts and maintaining the privacy of social networking site users in general. 

It cautioned against compromising privacy, noting that blackmailers select their victims based on the information they publish on social networking sites, such as personal data, images, and geographic location. The forum also warned of terrorist groups that draw children and the youth using social networking sites. 

The symposium stressed that the UAE law criminalises more than 52 activities involving social networking sites, including extortion, fraud, defamation and abuse of the state and others, calling for public access to the state's laws and legislation through the "UAE legislation" application.

Source: WAM