Crime up, include cyber safety in school curriculum: HP cops

Ambika Sharma

Solan, December 29

In a bid to create awareness on cybercrime and ensure that the younger generation is safe in the digital world, the state police have sought the inclusion of cyber safety and digital civics in the school syllabus.

Director General of Police Sanjay Kundu in a communication to Secretary (Education) Abhishek Jain yesterday asked him to include these topics in the curriculum of schools affiliated with the HP Board of Secondary Education.

With the increased use of mobile telephony and digital payments over the past few years, cybercrime too has registered a corresponding increase. The state is seeing an upsurge in cybercrime like phishing scams, identity theft, online harassment, cyber stalking, invasion of privacy, debit/credit card frauds, ATM frauds and pornography. Most of the victims of such crimes are woman and children, said the police.

Such crimes have registered a quantum leap in the last five years. As against 524 cyber frauds registered in 2017, the number rose to 2,773 in 2021, and against 49 FIRs in 2017, 127 were registered in 2021. “A majority of cyber frauds occurred owing to lack of awareness and were avoidable,” said SP (Cybercrime) Rohit Malpani. Since schoolchildren use computers and mobile phones from an early age, it has become important to sensitise them to cybercrime, the SP said.

Since the CBSE and the ICSE have already taking steps in this direction, the police have requested the state Education Department to follow suit.