ICDL Arabia, the governing body and certification authority of the ICDL program in Egypt, GCC States and Iraq, has won the ‘Best Practice Award’ during ECDL Foundation’s Forum 2015, held recently in Warsaw, Poland.

Director general of ICDL Arabia Jamil Ezzo received the award at the forum which was attended by information and communications technology (ICT) professionals from over 100 countries, said a statement from the company.

ICDL Arabia was recognised for effectively integrating key tools and information to better serve the ICDL community within its designated territory, it added.

Following receiving the award Ezzo delivered a speech to a large audience which included ICDL operators, computer societies, and policymakers in ICT education and training from all over the world.

During the speech which was entitled “Digital Native or Digitally Naïve”, he addressed the risks the Internet poses on adolescents today, and also shared with the audience key findings of a research conducted by ICDL Arabia which is the first research report that culminates both social media and how it relates to cyber safety in the Arab region.

The research which was carried out during ICDL Summer Camp 2014, was held across the GCC region and included 1,000 youngsters aged between 14 to 18 years, revealed that seven out of 10 kids have already fallen victim to cybercrime.

Further alarming statistics were shared to entice decision makers as well as ICDL operators around the world to engage and commit to the subject Cyber Safety.

Ezzo said: “We are committed to spreading digital skills among all citizens of our region, taking into account that public awareness on Cyber Safety is a fundamental issue in protecting our society and our children.”  

In line with its efforts to contribute towards Cyber Safety, ICDL Arabia has collaborated with Child Protection Centres and local police authorities across the region to raise awareness about the safe usage of internet among the youth.

It has provided informative and interactive sessions to parents and teachers in schools so that they can guide children on the pros and cons of the Internet as well as distributed handbooks on Cyber Safety to students, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service