By Amelia Tan

ABOUT 180 students from over 90 primary and secondary schools will be ambassadors for cyber wellness in the new school year from January.

This pioneer group of students will be trained at two-day workshops this week, so they can explain to their peers how to use the Internet safely and responsibly.

They will then go back to their schools and, under their teachers' supervision, use tools such as skits, online forums and websites to explain to their schoolmates issues ranging from copyright to password protection and cyber bullying.

In the process, they will take charge of educating their friends on protecting themselves online.

In June, these ambassadors will meet again at a conference to share the results of their efforts. A new batch of student ambassadors will be at the conference to learn the methods of this first batch.

The training workshops are a joint project of the Ministry of Education (MOE), the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and Microsoft Singapore. The money for the workshops comes from the $25 million in the kitty of the BackPack programme, started by these three parties in 2003 to develop and introduce technologies to schools over a 10-year period.

The target is to appoint and train student ambassadors in all schools by 2013.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Education) Masagos Zulkifli yesterday said the student ambassador programme will complement the efforts of teachers to inculcate good online habits in the young.

Speaking before the start of the workshops at Beatty Secondary School, he said: 'Positive peer influence can be a powerful mechanism to propagate good cyber-wellness practices, especially when being delivered from the students' viewpoint. Students relate more easily to their peers and will be more willing to express their concerns to fellow students.'

With students spending more time online nowadays, MOE has stepped up efforts to educate them on cyber safety.

Since late 2007, schools have had to run cyber-safety programmes anchored on the principles of respect for oneself and others, and safe and responsible use. Teachers have been broaching cyber-safety issues during civics and moral education classes or in examinable subjects like English.

But those who were interviewed said that no matter how comprehensive these efforts are, their students may tune them out - because to the students, teachers come across like they are preaching.

Teachers are especially concerned over students being too trusting and too quick to give out personal information such as mobile phone numbers online. They are also worried that the anonymity the Internet grants has emboldened youths to post hurtful comments online. Some students also spend too much time on online games.

Rulang Primary teacher Kwan Tuck Soon, welcoming the initiative, said: 'I think students will be more receptive to their peers because they are speaking as equals.'

Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) teacher Leong Chuen Kit said while it is good to get students involved, teachers and parents must realise that the programme will not result in miracles.

He added that parents must also instill the right values in their children so that they use the Internet responsibly.

Student ambassador from Rulang Primary Kelly Ng, 10, said: 'Many of my friends accept ?friend' requests from strangers on Facebook. I always remind them that it is unsafe because these strangers can see the personal information they post on their Facebook profiles.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.