Combating cybersecurity: P & T Minister urges youths to lead responsible social media use crusade.

The minister made the call in Yaounde yesterday. This was at the launch of a one-day workshop to train over 200 university students on responsible social media use.

According to the minister, peer education and other sensitisation campaigns is needed to step up responsible social media use.

She said, the crusade needs to be enhanced in the face of rising irresponsible behaviors on social networks. Youths, she said, have a key role to play in influencing good habits.

According to the minister, “we realised that youths understand themselves better because they deal with people of their age brackets”.

The minister talked of the wish of government to have a national coalition of people of all age group crusading to curb irresponsible behaviour online.

Youths, she added, should work hard and serve as peer educators to their fellows to strengthen government’s fight for a good use of the social media.

Cameroonian musicians such as Ateh Bazor and Sanzy Vianney alongside other influential figures had been selected by the ministry to promote responsible cyber behavior.

Trainees hail initiative

Soudaison Souleyman, a student of the Nation School of Posts and Telecommunications, said the “training is going to be very advantageous for us. It is also a form of security for us in future,”

Poumeyou Chimssiatou, another student of the National School of Posts and Telecommunications added that, based on the training, he will be able “to edify those in my environment; family, friends, mates and others because we are used to carrying out actions without knowing the implications”.

He noted that, sometimes, “we think deleting our posts from social media platforms mean they are automatically off the platforms. This is completely false. The publications can be retraced years later meaning we are not safe. That is why we have to be very careful”.

The training falls in line with government’s fight to keep the cyber space healthy. The project was launched by MINPOSTEL in 2020 on the instructions of the Head of State, Paul Biya.

In November 2022, the ministry trained over 800 students from higher education institutions across Yaounde to sensitize their peers on the same issue.