The Minister for Communication, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, called for a concerted effort in the fight against cyber crime, more especially child pornography which is currently gaining root across the world.
He noted that putting in place the needed measures to fight cyber-crime would protect children against the negative attacks which they were likely to encounter online or the internet.
Dr Omane Boamah, who was speaking during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Government of Ghana and the Commonwealth Cyber-crime Initiative (CCI), called for commitment in harmonizing laws pertaining to cyber-crime in the country.
The Commonwealth Cyber-crime Initiative was established by the Commonwealth Secretariat in Britain and aimed at providing the needed assistance to Commonwealth countries to fight cyber-crime and its associated challenges.
“No organization anywhere in the world is safe from cyber crime and its associated challenges, hence, the need to put in place the needed efforts to confront it,” he added.
He mentioned the development of a sound research system, capacity building, awareness creation and establishment of child protection measures for child online activities as some of the programmes which formed part of Government’s collaboration with CCI.
Mr William Aboah, National Security Advisor, said ICT had become the nerve system around which all economies of the world evolved.
He noted that cyber-crime had become a very complex challenge which needed people with the requisite technical know-how to deal with it effectively the world over and therefore called on Ghana to draw on the knowledge and expertise of countries which had succeeded in dealing with the complexity of cyber-crime.
Mr Aboah also praised the Communications Ministry for developing a National Cyber Security Strategy aimed at combating cyber-crime for the country.
Tim Crosland, Chairman, CCI, said the MOU which formed part of a collective project for all Commonwealth countries also had a network of more than 30 inter-communication organizations, including United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Vodafone, World Bank, International Telecommunication Union among others.
He said cyber-crime, if not dealt with, could even inhibit Governments of the world from providing the needed services for its people as the system (cyber-crime) got sophisticated each day.
Source: GNA