"We are fighting for the Internet, we are not enemies of the Internet," emphasized Mr. Manolis Sfakianakis, Director of the Prosecution of Electronic Crime, starting his speech, in the context of the 4th seminar of the 8th Cycle of Speeches-Discussions of the OPSA, with the thematic section: "Local Government and Electronic Governance, Social Media (Social Networking Pages) - Influences on Youth - Dangers - Prevention - Protection", which took place on Thursday 16/10, in the OPE event hall in Ilioupoli.
As Mr. Sfakianakis said, our country's Cybercrime Unit, which currently consists of 80 highly experienced police officers who travel throughout the country, will undertake in 2015 the training of police officers at a European level in the areas of cybersecurity and credit card crime.
1068 youth suicides prevented in the last year
The data provided by Mr. Sfakianakis on cyberbullying (bullying of young people via the Internet) were shocking, which fortunately in our country still remains at low levels, as he said, during his speech on the above topic. In several cases, the Cybercrime Prosecution has been called upon to prevent suicide attempts by young people in live connection to Internet chat rooms.
As he emphasized, through cyberalert, the "red" line of the Prosecution Service that operates 24 hours a day, the competent police officers have been notified and thanks to their rapid mobilization, 1068 suicide attempts by young people have been prevented in real time on the Internet in the last year. In 180-200 of these rescues, the young people were hospitalized in intensive care units of hospitals, but all cases had a positive outcome.
A section of the Cybercrime Prosecution Department also deals exclusively with combating the trafficking of child pornography via the internet, identifying the electronic "traces" of pedophiles or "predators", as they are called in the Prosecution Department, in chatrooms where they come into contact with their unsuspecting victims.
The Cybercrime Prosecution may be "fighting" all modern forms of crime via the internet, but Mr. Sfakianakis insists that the online world and social media are magical and provide many opportunities, but everything must be done in moderation and with all the necessary protective "keys" at our disposal.
The second presentation on the topic of “Education and Local Government in collaboration for the support of young people with total quality in their professional orientation and finding a job”, was developed by Mr. Ioannis Lymberis, former General Director of the Sivitanidio Foundation, Director of the IEK of Ilioupoli. He referred to the problems and dysfunctions of our country's education as well as the dependencies that make it “hostage” to interests, ineffective and harmful. As he said, “let us ask ourselves why Greece produces so many scientists whom the local economy cannot absorb. The unemployed scientists of our country leave for foreign countries in search of work and thus some other societies benefit from their services without having paid the minimum of their education expenses”. Mr. Lymberis emphasized the need to connect technological vocational education with local communities, municipalities and regions, in order to identify the professional needs of each region. He concluded by saying that beyond vocational training, quality learning can protect young people from the dangers of the internet to which Mr. Sfakianakis referred.
Mr. Georgios Miaoulis, professor at the Technical University of Athens, and Vasiliki Sotiriou Koutoulakou, lawyer and director of Education and Lifelong Learning, Municipality of Piraeus, made short interventions. Ms. Sotiriou Koutoulakou emphasized the role of Local Government in lifelong learning programs and in the organized response to antisocial behavior and aggression among young people, both online and offline, which are widespread phenomena today. For his part, Mr. Miaoulis emphasized that despite the risks, the benefits of e-government and cyberspace are clearly greater and Local Government, which is close to the citizen, can play a positive role in this direction.
Source: kathimerini.gr
