Google Introduces Initiatives to Boost Offline Safety in India

At its second Safer With Google event today, Google announced new initiatives and investments for people’s online safety in India. These initiatives include the Cybersecurity Upskilling Roadshows, awareness campaigns in collaboration with MeitY, digital safety training for CBSE Board teachers, and more. Here are the details.

New Google Efforts for Online Safety in India

The Cyberskilling Roadshow will be amulti-city eventto provide lakhs of developers and IT and start-up professionals with tools and guidance for developing safer apps. For this, a new foundational cybersecurity curriculum will be incorporated into the annual DevFest.

Google has collaborated with MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) in India and several banks like HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and SBI, among others topromote online safety campaigns to create awareness. The campaign partners will further take this ahead with promotions via SMS, apps, and more.

The “Be Internet Awesome” curriculum, introduced in 2021, has now been expanded to educate more people. Google has collaborated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to conduct webinars, Master Trainer programs, and in-person events for students to adopt safe digital habits.

The search giant has alsolaunched the ProtectingChildren.Google website for Child Safety toolkitin three languages, namely, Hindi, Bengali, and Tamil. It invites various NGOs and organizations to collaborate. For those who don’t know, Google already provides a Child Safety toolkit (Content Safety API and CSAI Match) to qualifying partners.

Additionally, Google is granting $2 million to Collective Good Foundation (CGF) to provide people (women, LGBTQIA+, and seniors) with a specially-designed curriculum and set of content to raise the issue of online safety. This will be available in Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, and Marathi, apart from English.

Google-org is also helping Point of View, HelpAge India, and more NGOs to create awareness for online safety. It is also partnering with Sheroes, a community platform for women for this.

Vanshika Malhotra

Started off as a stranger but tech is more like a good friend, thanks to over 5 years in the industry. While everything is attractive about tech, phones, social media, and quirky gadgets attract me the most. When not working, I find my solace in shopping and everything that concerns doggos!

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