Internet cafe groups sked gab on online child safety

On February 18 and 19, officers of different internet café associations and internet cafe operators in Mindanao will converge at SM City Davao for the 2010 Mindanao Internet Café Associations Summit (MICAS). Much like the first MICAS that was held in 2007, the Internet Café Association of Davao headed by its president, Adolfo Solanor, will take the lead in organizing this year’s gathering.
The 2nd MICAS will definitely be “bigger, better and bolder this year,” Solanor said during the Club 888 tourism and business forum at Marco Polo Hotel last Wednesday.  “Bigger in terms of participants as we bring together the different internet café associations and other stakeholders in the ICT industry in Mindanao.  Better for what we are offering are  two simultaneous events — an ICT trade exhibit that will showcase the latest advances in computer hardware, software and internet related services. The other is the workshop of the officials of the internet café associations and operators to come up with an action plan that would further the development of the internet cafes industry in Mindanao. Bolder when the participants set their goals as they claim their leadership in ICT access at the community level,” the ICAD president said.
Since majority of the customers of internet cafes are children, the summit hopes to be the venue for the adoption of the “Davao Declaration” which will define the initiatives of the different internet cafe associations in the promotion of online child safety in internet cafes, he told mediamen. It hopes to become a forum in which discussions could be initiated that would lead to an increase in awareness of the great responsibility of internet cafe operators as ICT access centers at the community level in ensuring the online safety of their customers.
“It is an honor and a privilege for I-Café Pilipinas to be part of the team led by ICAD that would organize the 2010 MICAS in Davao City in February” said Ed Zafra, chair of I-Café Pilipinas, the national organization mainly composed of internet café associations and operators in the Philippines. “We truly believe that the 2010 MICAS will serve as a vehicle in the further development of the internet cafes as a leader in community ICT access for peace and development in Mindanao,”added by Zafra.
The summit is made possible with the support of the event partners of the Internet Cafe Association of Davao and I-Cafe Pilipinas.  Intel Technology Philippines the largest chip provider in the country  and the Genuine Equity for Mindanao (GEM), a USAID project in Mindanao, as its Gold Event Partners. Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) and Department of Trade and Industries (DTI) as its Institutional event partners. iGlobe Technology as one of its Event Exhibitors.