Some of the presentations during the symposium
To mark World Consumer Right’s Day celebrated on March 15, the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) in collaboration with the Seychelles National Youth Council (SNYC) and Natcof (National Consumers’ Forum) organised a symposium to discuss and reflect on the year’s theme ‘Building a digital world that consumers can trust’.
The aim of the symposium was to educate the public, especially the young generation, on their role in the digital world in terms of them being respected and be protected. It was a platform for FTC to gather recommendations for further analysis so that feasible, sound and relevant policies can be formulated.
The symposium, held at the Seychelles Institute for Teacher Education (Site) on Friday afternoon, was attended by the chief executive of FTC George Tirant, chief executive of SNYC Alvin Laurence, chief executive of Natcof Raymond Course, members of the National Assembly, regulators, service providers and young students.
The internet, online payment and the role of the media were the topics of debate.
With digital technology having a dramatic impact on consumers around the world such as creating access to information, greater choice and conveniences such as online shopping, paying of utility bills, online banking and many more which are no doubt of benefit to consumers, there are questions about how to establish internet access to those not connected, how to improve the quality of services, which online services and products consumers can trust and also what happens to the data they share online.
In her welcoming remark, FTC representative Elza Robert said that with the world getting an even smaller global village with digital technologies bringing services and goods into the households of consumers, it is important to ensure that this change does not impact our society negatively but rather positively.
“Consequently, it is important to have guidelines, parameters and as much knowledge as possible to ensure that transactions in this digital age are done safely,” she noted.
With statistics showing that the younger generation seems more in tune with the digital era, it was fitting to hear them voicing out their concerns about high internet cost, usage and cost of phone data and the need for more education in the digital age.
During the two-hour debate, there were video presentations on digital age, launch of a poster competition on digital age for primary and post secondary institutions, a sketch on money scam via internet by Kelly Gamatis and Gael Boniface of SNYC, a presentation on ‘Trust in the digital world’ by George Gill from DICT (department of information communication technology) and a testimony by post-secondary student Daniel Vidot on his true experience of online shopping fraud.
After the debate, Mr Tirant said he was satisfied with the fruitful symposium, noting that the conclusion drawn from the symposium is that more needs to be done to educate the population on digital age so as to make the society move forward quickly in the digital era.
He added that all recommendations and concerns raised during the debate will be analysed by FTC and will be later put forward to the regulators and service providers for consideration.
For his part Mr Laurence said that even though the young people are well versed in the digital age, they are still vulnerable to fall prey to digital technology.
He added that educating the young generation on digital technology now will ensure that we have a good society in the future.
Source : Seychelles NATION