Protection and Support of Children on the Internet

June 1, in honor of the "International Children's Day", a large-scale online forum, "Support and Protection of Children on the Internet", was held. The event was organized jointly with the Kyrgyz branch of the Internet Society and the Roza Otunbayeva Initiative International Foundation. International and local experts made presentations at the forum and shared their experiences on: what threats can children be exposed to on the Internet, how to protect childrens’ personal information, the psychological state of children in age-challenging situations and how to help them; and how to balance between real and virtual communication and what methods other countries use.

Dogdurgul Kendirbaeva, Director of the Roza Otunbaeva Initiative International Foundation, said in her speech: "The population of Kyrgyzstan is 6 million people, and the number of devices they use is 9 million. Only 15% of them watch developmental and educational content, while the remaining 85% watch unnecessary and short-lived information". Nurbek Arzymbaev, the head of the Sanarip Tazalyk project, noted that there is very little information on the Internet about child protection in Kyrgyzstan. "We surveyed 500 websites in Kyrgyzstan, and  only one of them took measures to protect children's personal data on the Internet. We could not find such information on the remaining 499 sites", he said.

The Forum was also attended by Eliza Temirbekova, Early Childhood Development Specialist; Bakyt Abdishev, Communication Technology Specialist from the USA; Symbat Satybaldieva, Executive Director of KG Analytics Intellectual Society, online pedagogical design and e-learning specialist, author of professional development courses on Mugalim platform,  Montessori teacher and  STEM ambassador; Aigul Dogdurova, founder of Self-development School aha. Kg;  Aiperi Bozoeva, Sanarip Tazalyk Project expert; and Ajybek Nurlanov, Sanarip Insan and IlimBox Project Partnership Development Manager.  The participants shared their projects, personal experiences and valuable advice on protecting and supporting children.

At the end of the online discussion, Sapargul Abdinabieva, Early Childhood Development Specialist, Media Expert of the "Sanarip Insan" European Union Project, thanked everyone and congratulated all participants with the "Internaional Children's Day".