October 28, 2023
PRESS RELEASE
Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) and Deputy Commissioner (DC) of the Lahore District Administration Rafia Haider signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on a series of upcoming digital safety and literacy sessions for young adults titled, ‘Hamara Internet Mahfooz Internet’.
As Pakistan’s digital transformation accelerates, DRF has recognized the critical need for digital literacy amongst young adults. Millions of Pakistan’s young people are active internet users and are unaware of the emerging digital threats they face on the internet. These series of workshops come under the flagship project of Hamara Internet. Through these workshops DRF aims to educate and build the capacity of young adults particularly in public schools of Lahore. DC Lahore Ms. Rafia and DRF’s Executive Director Nighat Dad signed the MoU and shed light on the importance of this collaboration for public schools in Lahore’s district.
DC Lahore Ms. Rafia added, ‘This is a great initiative particularly for public sector schools since conversations around online safety and digital literacy are still relatively new and used to happen in private schools mostly. We hope these sessions will be a learning curve for students and teachers who we plan to engage through the Hamara Internet project.’
DRF’s Executive Director Nighat Dad added, ‘ This has been a passion project for DRF for quite some time now since we wanted to normalize conversations around digital rights for everyone and not just a few. We see this as the first step of many of educating people regarding their online safety and ensuring that hamara (our) internet is safe for all.’
Through this pilot project, DRF aims to work with the DC office to build the capacity of students and teachers alike on key digital literacy themes like online safety, ethics of using social media, misinformation and disinformation and support mechanisms in place for young adults in case of cyberbullying and harassment.
Digital Rights Foundation is a registered research-based NGO in Pakistan. Founded in 2012, DRF focuses on ICTs to support human rights, inclusiveness, democratic processes, and digital governance. DRF works on issues of online free speech, privacy, data protection and online violence against women.