Dubai Police participates in 4th National Bullying Prevention Week

]Dubai -- Dubai Police, representative by the Hemaya International Centre of the General Department of Anti-Narcotics, in collaboration with the ministry of education, is participating in the 4th National Bullying Prevention Week in the learning environment to raise awareness on bullying across the UAE.

The nationwide campaign has been organized under the patronage of H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women's Union, President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation, in collaboration with the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood and partnership with more than 28 federal and local entities.

The Hemaya International Centre, in cooperation with the Dubai Police e-crime platform, has been organizing various awareness-raising lectures with a number of Dubai schools. These lectures intend to address the electronic phenomena of bullying among school students at various educational levels and qualify them on how to deal with it and methods of prevention, explain the relationship between COVID-19 and cyberbullying, correct intervention methods, and the role of professionals in educational institutions in leading programmes to prevent bullying.

Brigadier Eid Mohammed Thani Hareb, director of the General Department of Anti-Narcotics at Dubai Police, lauded the initiative launched by the Ministry of Education since many students are not familiar with the concept of "Cyberbullying" and they would suffer living under the pressure of emotional blackmail that negatively affects their behavior at home and their psychological and social make-up.

“Therefore, we call on all educational institutions and entities to benefit from awareness workshops and lectures. We also urge to organize accompanying events targeting parents, administrators, teachers, nurses, bus supervisors, drivers, cleaners, workers in school canteens, and all members of society, to make them aware of their role in promoting positive values among students”. Brig. Hareb added.

Colonel Dr. AbdulRahman Mohammad Sharaf, Acting Director of the Hemaya International Training Centre (HITC), said that with the new coronavirus outbreak and the application of the distance learning and remote work system, students were compelled to spend most of their time at home using their electronic devices whether to attend to their schools' work or to spend their free time in the social media platforms.

"This change in the students' lifestyle alerts authorities like ourselves on the phenomenon of bullying in the digital space," "The Centre, in response to this phenomenon, set to educate the students through several online lectures on the ABC of Cyberbullying and qualify them on how to deal with it and methods of prevention," Col. Sharaf added.

"The lecturers, which will be given by expert officers, will focus on children's internet use and how it may expose them to cyber-risks. The experts will explain elaborately the most common ways of bullying and indicate the reasons why children are the main target. They, also, will list the channels that cyberbullies use to hunt for their victims and how students can avoid them," Col. Sharf explained.

Shifting to the threats of malware, the Acting Director of the HITC said that the specialized lecturers will explain the ways to prevent, protect and tackle this issue, which could be detected in the children's devices and delivered to them via video games and the internet advertising.

"They will also highlight how children often get scammed by fraudsters who lure them through impersonating a relative or a friend," Col. Sharaf added.

"Awareness is a must, and we're working with the Ministry of Education hand in hand to be part of the solution, since we believe that Dubai Police has the expert workforce and the capabilities to protect students professionally," Acting Director of the HITC concluded.