Achimota Senior High School has been crowned Southern zone winner of the National Cybersecurity Challenge (NCC) 2024 after beating St John’s Senior High School and Wesley Girls’ Senior High School.
Achimota SHS after the end of three rounds quiz challenge had forty-five points as well as St John’s Senior High School taking the second position with thirty-eight points, and Wesley Girls’ Senior High School coming up third with thirty-one points.
The winning school was awarded an amount of GH¢2,000 with two plaques, St John’s SHS was also awarded an amount of GH¢1,500 with a plaque, while Wesley Girls took home an amount of GH¢1,000 with a plaque.
The Southern zone winner, Achimota SHS, will compete with the winning schools, Nalerigu Senior High School (Northern zone), Serwaa Kesse Senior High School (Middle zone) and St Peter’s Senior High School (Eastern zone) for the national championship contest in October.
The National Cybersecurity Challenge 2024 was organised by the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation to raise digital awareness among children.
Under the theme “Empowering young minds: Creating opportunities and promoting a safer Digital Ghana,” it seeks to promote cyber safety and provide hands-on experiences in identifying, preventing and mitigating digital threats.
Speaking with the media, Lead of Child Online Protection of the Cyber Security Authority, Henrietta Asamoah, said the National Cybersecurity Challenge was initiated to create awareness among children and the youth to be able to identify, mitigate and prevent cybercrime because the over-reliance on technology has led to the rise of cybercrime.
According to her, the main challenges associated with children these days has mainly been sex and extortion, adding that, based on a survey by the Cyber Security Authority (CSA), children engage in a lot of online platforms like exchanging nude videos and pictures, causing girls to become victims because, “guys mostly demand money from them, and when they are not able to pay, they share it with their friends, putting girls into a very difficult corner.”
“According to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, 22,000 sexual images of children are produced, assessed and shared in Ghana, and when the CSA conducted a survey in 2023, it is alarming that over 64% of sexual abusive materials are produced and shared in Ghana, meaning Ghana is at the verge of losing its youth to predators and groomers of sexual crimes,” she indicated.
She disclosed that, the Cybersecurity Act 1038 specifically Section 4G seeks to promote the protection of children, hence the reason for going around various schools to raise awareness, adding that, they have initiated digital parenting, where parents are trained to ensure the safety of children on the internet.
For his part, Deputy Regional Director of Education, Greater Accra, Ebenezer Pobee, said the National Cybersecurity Challenge initiated by the CSA will guide children to use the internet intelligently and profitably for their own development.
He expressed appreciation to CSA for the initiative and urged them to scale and open it up in all schools to benefit the children.
By Janet Odei Amponsah