The Ministry of Public Utilities today held an award ceremony for a joint initiative on a Cyber Safety competition. That competition awarded the best cyber security app and comic strip - both developed by youths.
The ceremony, also attended by Minister of National Security Kareem Musa, was held to deliver prizes such as tablets, laptops, and headphones but also served to offer support and encouragement for a new generation of Belizean cyber security professionals.
Here's a look at the prize winners and a word from both Ministers on how this competition supports Belize's national digital agenda.
Michel Chebat, Minister of Public Utilities
"This is part of the cyber security week. We hosted a competition for kids between the ages of 15 to 19 to submit an app dealing with the whole issue of cyber security and data protection and also for the kids between 9 and 14 to submit a comic strip on the same topic today we had the awardees, we had four submissions for the apps and the kids from Belize High School won that competition and we had six submissions for the comic strip and as you saw we had a first, second, and third place winner for that today. You know this is critical for us because part of our national agenda is bringing the country to this digitization stage and as you know the online platform has so many benefits but it also has its dangers so it is important for us as a government to start teaching our kids from a very early age the importance od cyber security how to secure your data and so forth so this is all part of the national digital agenda plan that we have."
Cherisse Halsall
"It's an obvious move pushing kids into the digital space but why the consideration for the arts as well?"
Michel Chebat, Minister of Public Utilities
"Um, Because it is part of learning it is part of creativity and you know kids of all ages have this, they have a lot of talent and we felt that this was important to bring in all of those aspects into it and hence you see the comic strip was an important part of that."
Kareem Musa, Minister Of National Security
"As you know, we now live in the meta verse which is, and a lot of these young people are here today that contributed the comic strips that contributed to the creation of the app. They are the ones who are trafficking and using this highway and so we have to make sure that we are arming them and we are equipping them with the tools to fight to cyberbully and also the police has a critical role to play which is why we have our cyber crime unit over at the police headquarters, a unit dedicated solely to this type of crime and so we look forward to partnering not just with UNICEF but with UNDP and other agencies to enhance our cyber crime Unit and I have to say that just in the past year I think we have had two convictions, one in San Ignacio I'm sure for cyberbullying and so what this type of event does it creates the necessary awareness because a lot of people aren't aware of the cybercrime act. They are not aware of the data protection act and so this definitely encourages those individuals to report instances of cyberbullying and so I want to congratulate all our young people who participated in this event and certainly we are very very proud of them."
The students who won 1st, 2nd, and third, place respectively in the comic strip competition are Imber Cantun, Mya, Sanker, and Edlin Cantun.
The Winners in the app design competition were 1st place Godfrey Sosa, 2nd place Alex Ack, and 3rd place Ateeya Richards.
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