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Kyle Chua
Jul 8, 20233 min read

Google Unveils New Initiatives To Strengthen Online Safety for Singaporeans

Updated: Dec 19, 2023

Google is collaborating with Singaporean government agencies to make the internet safer for citizens of the island nation.

Google
Credit: Google

The search engine giant hosted the first-ever Safer with Google event, where it announced plans to launch new initiatives and expand on existing ones to strengthen its commitment to online safety. The event was attended by Minister for Communications and Information and Second Minister for Home Affairs, Mrs Josephine Teo, as well as Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development, Ms Sun Xueling.


"As we increasingly rely on the internet, it is more important than ever to be aware of rising threats like scams and to take action against bad actors," said Mr Ben King, Managing Director of Google Singapore. "Our collaboration with like-minded partners from the public and private sectors will help us empower all segments of society to tackle online harm and threats together as we create a better online world for all."


Google said it wants to improve the digital literacy of more parents, covering topics like cyberbullying, misinformation and privacy, after meeting the goals of the Be Internet Awesome programme and Google Online Safety Park that were launched in August last year. Over 50,000 parents and children were trained in online safety as part of last year's initiatives and Google looks to train another 50,000 by 2024 with the help of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Media Literacy Council (MLC).


Apart from parents and kids, Google also plans to reach out to seniors to help them stay safe from scams. As part of that commitment, the tech giant is deepening its ongoing partnership with RSVP Singapore The Organisation of Senior Volunteers, by joining Project PRAISE.


PRAISE stands for Police-RSVP Anti-Scam Engagement, a programme launched by the non-profit organisation and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) to raise scam awareness among seniors. Google's role in the partnership is to improve the training curriculum and provide additional training to over 100 RSVP volunteers. These volunteers would then go to educate over 2,000 seniors within a year on ways to spot scams better. The first session was held today at the Google office with 70 seniors attending.

Google
Credit: Google

Meanwhile, Google's video sharing platform, YouTube, is running Creators for Impact for the second year to engage content creators to help in promoting online safety. The programme is tapping local creators such as The Smart Local, Geek Culture and Sethisfy Personal Finance to develop content ideas that can help raise greater awareness on scam prevention.


YouTube is additionally onboarding four organisations from Singapore to the YouTube Priority Flagger Programme (YTPFP), a global network that collaborates with government agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to flag content that violates YouTube’s Community Guidelines. These include Limitless, Samaritans of Singapore Ltd, SG Her Empowerment (SHE) and TOUCH Community Services. The organisations were chosen for their specialised industry knowledge across a variety of subject matters.


What's more, Google launched the Priority Flagger Programme for Google Cloud, a programme that aims to accelerate the identification and flagging of potential phishing websites and malware hosted on the service. Singapore Police Force is one of the first organisations in the world to join the programme as Google Cloud plans to onboard more priority flaggers.


Google also wants to improve the cybersecurity of enterprises and prevent them from losing millions from attacks launched by bad actors. It's joining the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore to offer Google Cybersecurity Certificates to an estimated 100 enterprises for free. The certificate equips learners with the skills and know-how to identify risks, threats and vulnerabilities, providing them hands-on experience using Linux commands and Python to automate cybersecurity tasks, among other security tools. They'll also be prepared by the course to take the CompTIA Security+ exam, the industry-leading certification for cybersecurity roles.


Google Cybersecurity Certificates is part of Google Career Certificate courses. It can be completed online in under six months of part-time study.

 

  • Google hosted the first-ever Safer with Google event, where it announced plans to launch new initiatives and expand on existing ones to strengthen its commitment to online safety.

  • The tech giant wants to train another 50,000 parents and kids about the online harms of cyberbullying and misinformation by 2024 after meeting the goals of the Be Internet Awesome programme and Google Online Safety Park last year.

  • Apart from parents and kids, Google also plans to reach out to seniors to help them stay safe from scams.

  • Meanwhile, Google's video sharing platform, YouTube, is running Creators for Impact for the second year to engage content creators to help in promoting online safety.







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