Digital literacy among common people is a big concern all over the world, and it is a big challenge for the countries who have poor literacy rate. South Africa is in the top list of hackers due to its poor digital literacy.
Facebook safety policy manager of Europe Middle East and Africa Julie de Bailliencourt said that the social media company is trying to raise awareness among the citizens on how to protect their social media accounts.
De Bailliencourt was in South Africa for a series of seminars on online safety.
De Bailliencourt said that "the Facebook has more than two billion active users around the world and more than 16million active monthly users in South Africa, could only do so much to protect users from being hacked but that education was important for being safe online."
"For hacking, we're trying to raise awareness on not sharing your password with your friends or partner," said De Bailliencourt.
"We can put the best safety mechanisms in place but if you're going to share your password then it undoes a lot of the good practices.
"There's also a huge focus on education, so digital literacy is important."
According to a researcher at the Center for Justice and Crime Prevention, Joanne Phyfer, the research team had found some alarming stats in their recent case study about the South Africans' social media users and had found some astonishing result especially among youth and children.
"A lot of children are meeting strangers on the internet," said Phyfer, while talking in the seminar organized by the Facebook.
"Almost half of them have met someone they don't know, and almost half of those had later met the person offline," she said.
"When we compared parents and children, we found that parents' level of skill was the same as a that of a 12- to 14-year-old child.
"So for a parent to try to manage a child's internet use can be quite difficult, because once the child gets beyond the age of 14 he has progressed beyond the parent's capabilities," Phyfer said.
Facebook safety policy manager of Europe Middle East and Africa Julie de Bailliencourt said that the social media company is trying to raise awareness among the citizens on how to protect their social media accounts.
De Bailliencourt was in South Africa for a series of seminars on online safety.
De Bailliencourt said that "the Facebook has more than two billion active users around the world and more than 16million active monthly users in South Africa, could only do so much to protect users from being hacked but that education was important for being safe online."
"For hacking, we're trying to raise awareness on not sharing your password with your friends or partner," said De Bailliencourt.
"We can put the best safety mechanisms in place but if you're going to share your password then it undoes a lot of the good practices.
"There's also a huge focus on education, so digital literacy is important."
According to a researcher at the Center for Justice and Crime Prevention, Joanne Phyfer, the research team had found some alarming stats in their recent case study about the South Africans' social media users and had found some astonishing result especially among youth and children.
"A lot of children are meeting strangers on the internet," said Phyfer, while talking in the seminar organized by the Facebook.
"Almost half of them have met someone they don't know, and almost half of those had later met the person offline," she said.
"When we compared parents and children, we found that parents' level of skill was the same as a that of a 12- to 14-year-old child.
"So for a parent to try to manage a child's internet use can be quite difficult, because once the child gets beyond the age of 14 he has progressed beyond the parent's capabilities," Phyfer said.