Vodafone took its award winning digital safety programme, ‘AmanTECH’, to seven different public parks across the country during February and March as part of the ‘Fun Days with Qatar e-Nature’ series of family entertainment activities, in partnership with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Sasol, and Oryx.
Vodafone used its newly-designed augmented reality (AR) game at the parks to help more than 500 children learn how to protect their personal information on the Internet, identify fake messages, and prevent cyberbullying through a series of fun tasks.
The initiative comes in a long line of online safety activities that Vodafone has conducted since AmanTECH’s launch in 2014, which, to date have engaged more than 50,000 children, parents and teachers.
Recently, Vodafone revealed the results of its latest research where they had conducted 20 online safety workshops at primary schools.
This showed a number of gaps that urgently need addressing such as children’s excessive time spent online (up to eight hours) and the communication between parents and children that is often limited to parents trying to get children off screens.
A wider and more open conversation is required about screen use and some of the risks involved.
To continue the company’s efforts to engage the community, Vodafone will be taking its AmanTECH AR game to a number of malls and public events.
Twenty AmanTECH school workshops are also planned in 2019.
The AmanTECH programme includes ongoing workshops, an online source for information, and tips for parents accessible at www.vodafone.qa/AmanTECH.