Buhumaid: NDWP investing in leadership vision to empower society

The principles of the National Wellbeing Strategy 2031 is building a safe, secure and positive digital community and coinciding with the UAE centennial vision 2071 through achieving development goals towards the future, especially in preparing the society with needed skills, knowledge and behaviour that respond to rapid changes.

Buhumaid stated this during a media briefing organised by the ministry to announce the details of the National Digital Wellbeing Policy which was approved by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, at the Cabinet’s session last week, that the UAE is on top of the global ranking list in the internet and social networking group indicators with (99 percent). The UAE also topped the world in the social networking indicators among the total population and also topped the global index of subscriptions to mobile phones services with (187 percent of the total population in 2019.

The minister said, "The policy reflects the spirit of hope and preparation for the future through the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who said, 'If anyone thinks that the world after COVID-19 will be the same as the one before is mistaken’, and the quotes of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, when he said 'Values and ethics play an essential role in society, the UAE is capable of overcoming the crisis, do not worry.'"

She emphasised that Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, and Chairman of the Digital Wellbeing Council, was very keen to enrich and promote the pillars and objectives of the policy, highlight and emphasise the importance of the "Charter of Positive Digital Citizenship Values and Behaviours" to achieve the best wellbeing worldwide in a positive and secure digital society, praising the efforts of the members of the National Wellbeing Council representing 10 authorities namely Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Community Development through its National Happiness and Wellbeing Programme, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, National Artificial Intelligence Programme, Ministry of Economy (parents representative), Federal Youth Foundation (youth sector representative), Department of Government Support (Abu Dhabi Government Representative) and Smart Dubai (Dubai Government Representative).

Buhumaid elaborated, "We at the Digital Wellbeing Council are seeking to build a positive reality for technology and the digital world, where everyone interacts in a balanced and sound way. This task is becoming increasingly important under COVID-19 where global efforts continue to plan on how to coexist, extrapolate the new world, employ technology significantly and rapidly to find several solutions that ensure business continuity and education through work and distance education applications."

The minister referred to some figures that promoted this policy as a development priority at this extraordinary stage. In 2019, the total number of people around the world using the internet reached 4.13 billion people, while the proportion of social media users was 80 to 90 percent of the population in many developed countries, and is on the rise due to the pandemic that requires intense work technology, distance education, digital shopping, entertainment and other applications, social media platforms are a catalyst for increasing the number of Internet users and some other applications. These platforms have a real subscriber population equal to that of the world's largest population country.

The minister explained that the development of digital well-being and its requirements have grown in areas that require interaction with the digital world such as distance learning requirements, digital learning, digital research and curriculum, career requirements such as remote work, research, e-mails, government services platforms, smart services and government work in general, communication, social communication, communication platforms, chatting, visual and audio sharing, entertainment, electronic games, short films and online shopping.

Some international studies have shown that (76 percent) of the UAE's population considers digital wellbeing to be more of a risk, (67 percent) watch a video on social media every day, and (72 percent) prefer to do their transactions digitally if possible, (87 percent) of parents acknowledge the risk of letting their children surf the internet unsupervised, (66 percent) do not have the authority to surf the internet in their children's devices, and (34 percent) of parents let their children browse the digital world unsupervised.

The minister indicated that some of the results of the National Wellbeing Survey 2020 which was completed by the Ministry through the National Happiness and Wellbeing Programme, showed that (56 percent) of children use digital devices to watch videos, and (50 percent) use these devices to play electronic games.

The survey also found that parents use various methods to manage their children's use of electronic devices, with (45 percent) parents talk to their children about the negative effects of excessive use of digital devices, and (33 percent) check the content of devices such as visited sites, downloaded apps and messages.

She also referred to the four main pillars of policy including 11 diversified initiatives. The pillars are digital capacities – building the capacities of members of the community such as children, young people, senior citizens; digital behaviour – consolidating positive digital values and behaviour in all social media platforms and coexisting with all virtual societies as adopt the values of the Late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan; digital communication – establishing legislations and regulations that accommodate the changes of the digital world to protect users from suspicious digital risk, and finally, Digital content – guiding the community to use the digital world and content positively to reduce exposure to harmful or hateful content through legislation or technological means.

The minister noted that there are a set of initiatives included in digital capacities such as an integrated digital portal that includes awareness content in its first phase to support all the members of the community; embracing digital citizenship and wellbeing in the curriculum through all schooling stages; embedding digital well-being ambassadors initiative to qualify a group of children in schools on the principles of digital wellbeing to be represented at their schools and the community around them; capacity building programme for senior citizens; and awareness videos of the basics of using modern technologies to qualify senior citizens keep up with modern technologies and organise vocational courses within the Vocational School for the youth. These are integrated training programmes for training young people in the field of technology.

In the digital behaviour pillar, several initiatives were approved such as Digital Citizenship Values and Behaviours. These are a set of principles based on the culture and values of the UAE to deal with the digital world positively and properly, the Guide to Electronic Bullying, a guide to identifying and managing cyberbullying in the event of exposure.

In the digital communication pillar, the initiatives include maintaining digital wellbeing by providing consultations on all the challenges of the digital world, reviewing the laws and legislations related to the digital world by updating the necessary connected laws to the digital world at an accelerated pace in the era of digital governance.

Finally, the focus of digital content with its initiatives – digital classification of electronic games by providing an electronic guide to the evaluation of electronic games to help parents choose games that are suitable for the age of their children to create conscious generations, committed to their Emirati values. The digital content support initiatives are a set of media supporting digital initiatives which support digital content such as media campaigns, awareness videos and educational publications.