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Following is a question by the Hon Abraham Shek and a written reply by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mrs Rita Lau, in the Legislative Council today (November 3):
Question:
The Financial Secretary announced in the 2009-2010 Budget to inject HK$63 million to conduct a one-year Internet education campaign, the "Be NetWise" campaign, to promote the safe and healthy use of the Internet among young students, their parents and teachers. More than 500 temporary Internet Ambassadors were recruited to coordinate and promote relevant activities and services under the campaign. The campaign was launched in September 2009 and ended in August 2010. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of requests from the public for home visit technical assistance and the actual number of home visits made by the Internet Ambassadors during the campaign, with a breakdown by District Council district;
(b) of the number of activities held under the "Be NetWise" campaign and the themes of the activities, including large-scale promotional events, roving exhibitions, training courses, school talks and inter-school activities, etc., with a breakdown by month and District Council district;
(c) whether the Government will review the effectiveness of the "Be NetWise" campaign; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(d) given that the Government indicated at the meeting of the Panel on Information Technology and Broadcasting on April 12, 2010 that a new organisation would be set up to design tailor-made programmes to enhance the technical know-how of parents and students and their knowledge about the safe and healthy use of the Internet, of the progress and details of such work, including the date of commissioning of the organisation, staff establishment and programmes to be launched, etc.; and
(e) apart from setting up the new organisation, whether the Government has other measures to continue to promote the safe and healthy use of the Internet among young students, their parents and teachers after the "Be NetWise" campaign ended in August 2010; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The "Be NetWise" campaign was launched in September 2009 to promote the safe and healthy use of the Internet. With the support of 14 partnering non-government organisations and some 520 staff, we organised a range of activities as detailed below on a territory-wide basis, and in different districts and schools.
By end September 2010, we have organised about 1,000 educational talks and training workshops for some 163,000 students, parents, teachers and social workers, and conducted over 88 000 home visits. We have provided over 50,000 counselling sessions through the "Be NetWise" Family Support Centre specialised in Internet behaviour. An exhibition bus touring around the territory has visited about 300 schools and public locations, attracting some 22,000 visitors. We have produced over 100,000 copies of a handbook on Internet usage to provide parents with handy tips and guidance on Internet usage. We distributed a professional education resource kit to all primary and secondary schools to provide teachers and school social workers with systematic and practical reference materials for carrying out Internet education. The campaign activities have been very well received by the community, and some activities such as school talks and home visits in some districts have been extended till late October 2010 to meet the demand.
The campaign created over 520 year-long jobs to support the implementation. A large scale recruitment expo of the campaign was conducted in July 2009 attracting some 5,500 job seekers and over 10 000 applications. Relevant training, on-the-job coaching as well as employment support services were provided to staff during the campaign to support them in delivering the campaign and to facilitate their long-term career development and employment after conclusion of the campaign. We organised a one day career expo in October 2010 and held a commendation ceremony for staff of outstanding performance.
Regarding the specific questions raised by the Hon Abraham Shek, my reply is as follows:
(a) To understand families' Internet usage issues and to address their technical support needs, home visits have been arranged for all families who requested them. Each home visit included gathering information about Internet usage and concerns, distributing and explaining a parents' handbook with handy tips and guidance on Internet usage, and providing families with any needed technical support such as enhancement of computer configurations, improvements to Internet security, installation of filtering software, etc. A table showing the number of home visits conducted from September 2009 to September 2010, with a breakdown by district, is at Annex A.
(b) The activities of the campaign covered promotion and education on a wide range of themes on major Internet related issues such as Internet addiction prevention, personal data privacy protection, respect for copyright, avoidance of indecent contents, Internet security, cyber bullying prevention, etc. A table showing the number of activities held under the campaign from September 2009 to September 2010, with a breakdown by month and district, is at Annex B.
(c) We are compiling a final report on the overall effectiveness of the campaign. We are also arranging a post-campaign survey to gauge the change of awareness of the youth, parents and teachers on safe and healthy use of the Internet as compared with the results of a similar survey conducted at the commencement of the campaign. Some of the activities of the campaign lasted until October 2010, and the review report is expected to be completed by end 2010.
(d) We reported at the meeting of the Panel on Information Technology and Broadcasting on April 12, 2010 that the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) intended to propose a support programme to help children in low-income families to pursue online Internet learning through access to the Internet at home. The programme would help the needy families acquire affordable computers and Internet access services, as well as provide education and technical support to these families on the safe and healthy use of the Internet. The Finance Committee approved in May 2010 a funding provision of $220 million for implementing the programme through a non-profit-making organisation. The OGCIO received five proposals in July 2010 on the implementation of the programme and have rigorously assessed all the proposals. Having regard to the relative strengths of the proposals and our view that a programme that combines the best aspects of the two leading proposals can deliver the greatest benefits to the low-income families, we are now exploring the possibility of collaboration between the two leading proponents to implement the programme. We are striving to launch the support services before the commencement of the 2011-12 school year.
(e) Upon the conclusion of the "Be NetWise" campaign, some established services will be sustained to support the ongoing effort of community organisations in promoting the safe and healthy use of the Internet. These services include the Family Support Centre, support hotline, online resource portal, handbook for parents, as well as the education resource kit for teachers and social workers.
Ends/Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Issued at HKT 14:42
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