Facebook Launches Digital Literacy Library in 6 Indian Languages

In a bid to train 3 lakh Indians in digital safety, Facebook on Monday announced the launch of the Digital Literacy Library - a collection of lessons in Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.

The announcement was made at Facebook's South Asia Safety Summit here in the presence of Union Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Maneka Gandhi.

Joined by over 70 organisations from five countries, including India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, the event included discussions among experts on a wide range of topics, from safety and technology to keep the most vulnerable people safe when they go online.

Facebook also organised a child safety hackathon at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in partnership with Cyber Peace Foundation and Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi.

With a focus on developing solutions to help combat child sex trafficking, all prototypes developed at the hackathon are being donated to NGO partners to help them in their work of protecting children.

"The launch of the Digital Literacy Library, the child safety hackathon and several offline training programmes we run in partnership with local experts, reaffirm our seriousness in combating online abuse," said Antigone Davis, Global head for Safety, Facebook.

"We expect to train 3,00,000 people by end of 2018, and we will multiply these efforts in times to come," he added.

Facebook reports child exploitative material and violations to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC, who was also present at the summit, works with local law enforcement authorities globally to help victims.

"The trainings are targeted primarily towards women and youth and are being done in collaboration with organisations such as Cyber Peace Foundation, Learning Links Foundation, Internet and Mobile Association of India, Gaon Connection, and Centre for Social Research, to name a few," informed Davis.

With more than 200 million young people online in India, the digital library will help them build the skills needed for safely enjoying digital technology, said Facebook.