Why BANTAYnet?
Why is it so important to teach Filipinos about online safety and Internet savvy?
There are many potential dangers on the internet for people who are not aware of them, ranging from the slightly inconvenient to life-endangering, including:
- Phishing – the 1st quarter of 2019 saw over 1 million phishing incidents in the Philippines according to Kaspersky
- Password security & Identity theft
- Financial Scams
- The dangers of Fake News / Disinformation
- Sexual exploitation
- Child abuse and online sexual exploitation – In 2016 the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) declared that the Philippines had become the global hotspot for online sexual exploitation of children. It remains one of the top global sources of child sex abuse materials with 600,000 “sexualised” photos of Filipino children bartered and traded in 2018 alone.
- Being tricked into Modern Slavery – According to the Global Slavery Index, about 1 million Filipinos live in modern slavery, although official data is difficult to gather. Often vulnerable people are tricked through fake job offers found through the Internet.
Producing content in multiple languages
With English being an official Filipino language, is there a need for content in other Filipino languages?
Although English is the official language of instruction in schools, and 70% of the population are considered fluent, for most Filipinos it is not their mother tongue and not the primary language spoken in their home. Learning new information in a first language, or any language you are very comfortable with, is easier, more effective and less intimidating.
If Tagalog is the official Filipino language, why bother with other Filipino languages?
While Tagalog is the official national language, it is one of 10 main ones. In fact, there are 120-175 Filipino languages depending on how they are classified. An estimated 90% of Filipinos speak 1 of the 10 main languages (as of 2016).
Note: we are not aiming to translate into all languages!
Why start with Bisaya and not Tagalog?
- It is exactly because Tagalog is the official language that other local languages get neglected when it comes to providing non-English written material on any topic.
- The percentage of mother tongue Bisaya (which includes Cebuano & Boholano) speakers is 22% compared to 25% Tagalog speakers, which is a large proportion of the country’s entire population. Starting with Bisaya, therefore, means we will be able to reach a huge part of the population with just one language.
- Bisaya is what we know. To be more precise, Bisaya is the language spoken by our two Filipina trustees, so it is a natural starting point.
How and when will we offer content in other Filipino languages?
To make sure we provide quality content not only in terms of the information, but also the language, we will be working together with native speaker volunteers to help us with translations from English into Bisaya and later on, other languages. Once we are established and have produced enough content in Bisaya, we look forward to rolling out our content in additional languages.
Do you need to know a Filipino language to learn from BANTAYnet?
No! Despite our main mission of reaching Filipinos in their native languages as much as possible, there will be a BANTAYnet English page for each of our social media profiles, as well as our website. Any content we publish in a Filipino language, will also be posted there in English.
How you can help
Social Media
One of the easiest and least time consuming ways to help us out is by simply liking and sharing our content on Social Media. Your simple act of sharing our content will certainly go a long way!!!
Translation
Know a Filipino language and are comfortable with translating from English? If so you might like to be one of our Translation Volunteers.
Fundraising
If you enjoy organising entertaining events such as bake sales, fun-runs or online charity quizzes for example, perhaps you would like to be a Fundraising Volunteer?
Donate
We rely heavily on the generous donations from our supporters. The more financial help we can get, the faster we can expand our services to other Filipino languages!