Over half of calls to cyber safety helpline were about Covid

A cyber safety help line coordinated by the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute received calls from 683 individuals in the first quarter of 2021, but more than half of these concerned Covid-19 and not cyber security, the Cyprus News Agency reported on Thursday.

However, among calls on safety, there was a worrying increase in complaints of sexual harassment online, it added.

The call centre on 1480, is part of the Cyber Safety initiative aiming to create a safe environment online for young people, their parents, teachers, and society more widely by offering support and information on digital technology.

Of the calls for help made from January 1 to March 31 this year, 395 or 57.83 per cent were not related to services offered by the hotline. Instead, callers wanted information on the pandemic and the economic support programmes offered by the labour ministry to assist businesses, employees and the self-employed.

Of the 288 individuals who contacted 1480 for services offered by the help line, a number very similar to last year, 177 (61.46 per cent) were from girls or women and the remaining 111 from men or boys.

The overwhelming majority (270 or 93.75 per cent) were adults. More than one in four calls (27.4 per cent) concerned electronic crime such as hacking and electronic fraud. The second largest number of calls concerned bullying (26.39 per cent), which recorded a 5.21 per cent increase over the previous year.

Just over one in ten calls (11.81 per cent) were for technical support such as how to create or delete an account on social media. Other categories were digital literacy (10.42 per cent – up by 7.30 per cent over the previous year) and how to protect their personal data (7.99 per cent).

The Cyprus Pedagogical Institute voiced concern that the number of reported incidents of sexual harassment had doubled. These concerned unwanted content and comments, and impersonation with a view to damaging their reputation through sexual harassment.

There was also a 3.47 per cent increase in reported cases of sextortion.

The help line operates toll free from 9.00 to 13.00 and 15.00 to 18.00 on Monday to Friday and from 10.00 to 13.00 on Saturday. Alternatively, the centre can be contact by email  on [email protected], on the website https://www.cybersafety.cy/helpline-report or by electronic chat on https://www.cybersafety.cy/helpline-chat.