The Ministry of Education yesterday issued five “don’ts” to help students prevent “digital gender violence” and four “dos” for responding to such events.
After a long summer vacation, students in elementary and junior-high schools, who are to return to school on Monday next week, might need to be reminded of some issues, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said.
Hopefully, the students will find a friendly study environment when they return to class, he said.
Photo: Wo Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
While the rapid development of the Internet and digital technology has provided convenience, experiences with such technology can harm children, Pan said.
Cases such as South Korea’s “Nth Room” scandal can cause a “lifetime of indelible and profound pain” in children, he said.
The ministry has made “preventing digital gender violence” the theme of this year’s nationwide “friendly campus week,” which runs from Monday to Friday next week, he said.
The ministry has partnered with schools across the nation’s 22 municipalities and counties to launch a month-long campaign, including events and messaging, on the subject, he said.
The ministry said the five “don’ts” that form its guidelines for preventing digital gender violence are: Do not violate people’s wills; do not heed requests for photographs of yourself; do not send messages hastily; do not forward private images; and do not make fun of people.
Its four “dos” for responding to cases of digital gender violence are: Do tell a teacher or parent; do save a screenshot for evidence; do call the police; and do report the other party, it said.
While gender violence exists in real life and online, it “spreads faster” online, said Theresa Yeh (葉德蘭), a member of the Gender Equality Education Committee and chair of the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation.
At a news conference in Taipei yesterday, members of the Paper Windmill Theater Troupe (紙風車劇團) acted scenarios, which students might encounter that would be considered digital gender violence.
The troupe said that through the performance, it hopes more students will understand that what happens to them is not shameful, but rather something that they should speak about, Paper Windmill Cultural Foundation vice chief executive officer Minny Chang (張敏宜) said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater