The first ChildSafe Certified Internet Cafes will receive their certification on Saturday 8 September.
Staff at these internet cafes have been trained to protect children and young people from the potential dangers of using the internet and potentially abusive situations.
Many young people are unaware of the potential dangers when using the internet. For many of them going to the internet cafÈ is a great way to chat with friends and share information. However, sometimes this information can be shared with the wrong people, placing the young person at risk. Pedophiles often use chatrooms and sites for what is known as "grooming" that is, getting to know a child online and gaining their trust before exploiting them.
The internet is also widely used by young people to look for information about relationships and sex. Unfortunately, their searches sometimes lead them to pornographic sites, which do not provide healthy or accurate information about health and love.
To prevent children from ending up in these situations, staff at ChildSafe certified internet cafes are carefully trained to identify situations that may be harmful to children and help children who may be in difficult situations. They must pass a test before receiving their certification.
The internet cafes will also promote the www.healthandlove.org website, a Khmer language website that provides information about healthy sex, HIV /AIDS, drug, love relations, information for girls/boys, abortion, internet dangers and how to be safe while they are on the net.
The staff at the internet cafes will promote this site and also advise young people about how they can be safe when surfing the net. They will also look out for adults bringing children to internet cafes to look at pornography and report any cases of this to our ChildSafe hotline so that appropriate actions can be taken.
These internet cafes will join the rest of ChildSafe's international network that includes hotels, guesthouses, tuk-tuk and moto drivers, tour companies, magazines and websites to protect children from all forms of abuse.
More internet cafes have been trained, tested and certified in Siem Reap and Sihanoukville. A list of ChildSafe internet cafes and other ChildSafe businesses are listed on
http://www.expat-advisory.com/cambodia/phnom-penh/childsafe-cafes.php