The Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA) will be launching a “Be Social, Be Smart” guide during Child Month next year, aimed at providing information on proper use of the internet.

This comes against the background of approximately 3 substantiated reports received by the OCA monthly, of sexually explicit or violent content posted on social media.

Children’s Advocate, Diahann Gordon Harrison, says the guide will provide tips for parents and children to prevent their personal information from being hacked and wrongly used on social media.

Children’s Advocate, Diahann Gordon-Harrison

In the meantime, Junior Science and Technology Minister, Julian Robinson says amendments to the Cybercrimes Act, will make provisions for Cyber Bullying to become a criminal offence.

Junior Science & Technology Minister, Julian Robinson

He says criminal charges can be brought against people who wilfully share information that can cause harm to others.

The Cybercrimes Act was passed in parliament on October 13 and was sent to the Senate for approval.

Mrs Gordon Harrison and Mr Robinson were speaking at a press conference at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston yesterday (November 20, 2015).