Mangaluru : The Mahila Congress in Dakshina Kannada district has decided to launch training camps for women on the Parental Access Code (PAC) that allows parents to monitor children’s activities on mobile phones.

This training programme is being planned following the death of a 12-year-old boy, a suspected victim of online gaming.

Mangaluru MLA U T Khader said cyber experts will train 100 women leaders from the Mahila Congress initially and later those trained women party workers will hold training camps in villages in the district.

“We will soon meet to finalise the proposal of holding training camps for parents, especially women. Training on PAC for women will help them have a control over children who use mobile phones. Mothers can keep a tab on children’s activities and prevent misuse. We have plans to commence the training programmes in selected villages within a month,” Khader said.

Meanwhile, the MLA urged the government for mandatory appointment of counsellors in schools. Similarly, each taluk hospital in the state should have one counsellor to address issues related to children. School teachers, law enforcement agencies, people’s representatives and NGOs should join hands to create awareness, he said.

He also insisted that the government should ban online games like PUBG effectively through national policy. “Such online games are actually destroying the youth power of the nation. It destroys the human resource of the country by weakening the youth. Students who are addicted to such games always are found to be disturbed mentally and they confine themselves to the four walls of their houses. Though a ban is in force against few games, children are downloading and using them. A long-term policy that ban such games effectively is the need of the hour,” he added.