Peer-reviewed article
Effectiveness of Cyber Security Awareness Program for young children: A Case Study in UAE
Arwa A. Al Shamsi ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines a cyber security awareness program delivered by the UAE Ministry of Education to children aged 8-10 years. The program aims to teach children about online risks and safe practices. Interviews with trainers and students found that both groups believed the program was effective and that it influenced students' online behaviour. However, the study notes that actual effectiveness is difficult to measure since it depends on how students behave online in practice.
Key points
- Children aged 8-10 in UAE have daily internet access for gaming, social media and schoolwork but often lack awareness of online risks
- The cyber security awareness program topics were found to align with actual online risks children face
- Both trainers and students reported that the program was efficient and effective
- Students reported that the awareness program influenced their online behaviour
- Measuring real-world effectiveness is challenging as it depends on actual student behaviour online rather than just awareness
Limitations
The study used only qualitative interviews and therefore cannot quantify the effectiveness of the program or measure actual changes in student behaviour. The study cannot determine whether awareness training translates into sustained safe practices online.
Abstract
Children are an important element of the community; they represent the hope of a bright future. The safety of our children is priceless. Nowadays children are using the internet on a daily basis for many reasons; playing online games, social media or even for doing their school works. The internet takes a huge part of their times and unfortunately, most of these children are not aware of online risks and how they should respond properly to online risks. Moreover, children may have unlimited access to the internet without any control or supervision. The cybercrimes are increasing year after a year and the government of UAE considers the safety of the citizens as one of the most priorities to achieve. As the safety of our children is a priority, the Ministry of Education in UAE provided a cyber security awareness program for children in order to raise their security awareness level about online risks and online best practices. The objective of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of the cyber security awareness program offered by the Ministry of Education in UAE to students aged 8 to 10 years old. This research paper methodology based on qualitative methods for collecting data in which data were collected from interviews conducted with both the trainers of the program and students who attended the program. It was found that the children may expose to different online risks and the topics included in the cyber security awareness program were effective and aligned along with possible online risks children may expose to. Both the trainers and the students agreed on the efficiency of the cyber security awareness program and students believed that the awareness program influenced their online behavior. Although the interviews provided valuable findings, the real effectiveness of the cyber security awareness program hard to be measured as it depends on how students will behave online.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Cyber security awareness program delivered by UAE Ministry of Education covering online risks and best practices
- Population
- Students aged 8-10 years in UAE schools
Key finding
Both trainers and students agreed that the program was efficient