Online Sense is ICDL Arabia's philanthropic arm aimed at raising public awareness on Cyber Safety.

Did Violent Games make the Dubai Girl Violent?

Gulf News recently reported that “addiction to violent video games” led to a 14-year-old girl being taken to the hospital for psychological assessment and treatment. Did the girl become violent only due to the effect of violent games? Researchers in the US have experimented on this topic, and suggest that the answer might be ‘yes’.

Banks in UAE raise an alert on vishing (voice phishing)

In the recent months, there have been numerous complaints in the UAE of scamsters calling people, posing as agents from banks, to steal their personal information. The technique these criminals use is called vishing (The name is a combination of ‘voice call’ and ‘phishing’, which scamming people via email). The vishing scam has assumed such serious proportions that bankers have issued public warnings against it.

Try this new Facebook app for video creators!

Facebook recently made an announcement that should make YouTube publishers sit up and take notice. The Social Media giant released Facebook Creator, an app that will let people who create original videos, go live, and explore other exclusive features. The app has been launched globally on the iOS platform and will roll out for Android users in the coming months.

The Dark Web Goes Mobile—and More Untrackable

An IntSights Cyber Intelligence threat report, Messaging Applications: The New Dark Web, suggests that apps like Discord, ICQ, Skype, Telegram and Whatsapp offer a convenient mobile platform for criminals, given the availability of group chat. IntSights analyzed thousands of black markets, text storage/paste sites, hacking forums, IRC channels, apps and social media pages, and discovered a steady increase in criminals inviting users to join their messaging groups.

YouTube Kids announces new measures to safeguard children

YouTube Kids recently announced new measures for parents if they find kids watching inappropriate videos at home even by mistake. Parents can now report inappropriate videos to YouTube which will be reviewed by a policy team. If the user is signed in while reporting a video, it will also be blocked from the YouTube Kids app, the company said in a statement.