Security For The Indigenous People In The Community

Digital Technology in the Indigenous Community and Digital Divide

Discuss about the Security for the Indigenous People in the Community.

Indigenous people have started using the mobile technology and are slowly catching up to the latest trends in technology. There has been substantial increase in the number of digital media devices in the indigenous people. It has bene found that the issue that has been felt is the lack of providing network for the remote communities. In the areas of Alice springs, tenant creek, Ayers rock resort there is increase in the number of digital media tools have been found (Rice et al., 2016). The Arnhem land communities are also found to have strong coverages within the media. Four in Ten of the lower income Australians are not connecting to the internet. In the case of Indigenous people only 63% of the people have Internet access at home when compared to 77% of the non-indigenous households. In the case of lower income group 68% of the children have access to the Internet when compared to the 91% in the advantaged community (Price, 2015). This showcases that there is a substantial digital divide that is existing in the societies.

The world has been changing dramatically in the newer times. There has been a considerable growth of the digital technologies. This has caused newer opportunities for the people in the areas of networking and communication. In this process it is imperative to understand the impact of the digital technologies and social media use for the people in different communities. The ways to improve the potential, social and health outcomes are essential in this process for productivity and growth (Shorten, 2016). The digital media has been used to increase the interaction among people and increase the quality of life of the people. In this sphere the people are encouraged to provide information and create ideas in the virtual communities. The digital media and the web-based platforms are used for increased collaboration and interaction of the people with one another.  Digital media has the tools to aid people across the various platforms and helps them to connect with each other (Andreasson, 2015). Some of the popular social media such as Facebook has reported that between the 2014 and 2013 there has been increase in the number of people to 13.6 million. The adolescent and the young people in the population is found to use these digital media tools more than the other adult population (Brookes, 2015). The same trend has been observed in the indigenous population.

Importance of Digital Devices for Development of Indigenous Community

It has been found from the Australian governmental reports that the 69% of the users have a general complacent attitude. The people in general assume that they know more and have a better plan in handling of the issues. In the case of low income group, it has been found that the people have limited educational initiatives. This causes them not to focus on using the digital systems. The governmental mandates have not caught up with the events. The law has not caught up to the technology. There is a complex public policy that is developed in response for the cybercrime. To understand this paradigm in itself is very difficult. The laws are hazy and this leads to the public to become even more vulnerable to attacks (Ko& Choo, 2015). There are not enough safety mechanisms that has bene developed to meet the needs of the people.

The digital devices are used for community building. It has been accepted as a near panacea cure for the development of communities. The telecommunications and digital media enables the communities to grow as a business and corporate entities. It enables the people to engage in participation and development of the communities. The people who are in the remote areas can have access to the latest technological trends. They are also vital to provide national security and enable the people to gain faster access to aid during times of natural disaster. Even though increasing number of threats are found due to the rise in the technological developments. It has been found that the benefits outweigh the risks.

It has been found that the indigenous people in the Australia have social disadvantage in the areas of education. According to the statistics the people are found to drop out of school earlier. There is a wide range of disparity that is found to be evident in the areas of schooling (Collins, 2016). These people are found to have lesser literacy and numeracy skill. This lack of education starts to affect the young people. There is increase in the assault of children, young people are found to experiment with the drugs and become addicted to substance abuse. This increases juvenile incarceration. Increasing in the access of digital media can make the indigenous people become aware of the various social issues and stigma in the society (Abrahamsen & Leander, 2015). There can be effective interventions, monitoring or evaluation of the process. The media and the social marketing can be used to raise awareness of the social and the health issues. Media can be a very useful functional tool that is used to increase the awareness of the people (Janczewski & Caelli, 2016). It is imperative for the people to understand the target group uses and provide security for the same to avoid adverse effects.

Security Issues of the Indigenous Community

Hence if the people can gain more access to the digital technology there will be all around progress in the development of the communities.

Security to the people is not about providing the latest anti-virus software or firewalls. It is imperative to understand and use the latest cyber security software to prevent malwares and virus attacks. However, this is not the only security issues that the people face. The issues that are faced by the people are not limited to the aboriginal people. It has been found to be the case for the wide majority of the people. The aboriginal community in the last century has made tremendous progress in technology (Choucri & Jackson 2016). The people in general have become more savvy and using the latest technology. In spite of these developments the people face unique issues owing to their proximity to the urban areas and not having English as the main language of communication. This leads to the digital divide and causes the people to become even more alienation from productivity and progress of their community. The people are found to face some unique security situations and issues owing to this system (Triggs, 2013). Some of the other issues that has been felt by the aboriginal community and the security issues that impedes the progress of the people are detailed in the following.

There are many Indigenous young people who use digital technologies in the current times. However, the access towards these technologies are curbed owing to the remoteness and the socioeconomic status of the people. This invariably leads to the situation where the lack of awareness of the security threats leads to the people facing a number of issues (Edmonds, 2014).  The young people do not have the internet or computers at home further causing them to be susceptible to the various issues of the digital media.  Apart from this the Indigenous people are targeted because of their ethnicity.

Cyber bullying, cyber racism, loss of sensitive information, exchange of explicit imagery between minors are the main security causes for the population (Broucek & Turner, 2012). There is a general gap in the knowledge of the people regarding their use. In many houses the adult members are not aware of their issues and this causes the younger people to be susceptible to online threats.

In the conventional systems and in real physical spaces there are socially mandated conformities as to how people should be treated.  The people do not engage in hurtful behavior or racists stereotypes openly in the public areas. It is considered to be rude and racist. However, this does not exist in the online medium owing to the anonymity involved in the process (O’Brien, 2014). The people feel that they have freedom to be themselves and choose to victimize people based on their ethnicity. There should be educational programs are required to raise awareness of the issues. This also leads to increase in the conflicts between the society members. For example, the Diva Chat had caused community clash between the Warlpiri population and the Indigenous population. Cyber racism goes virtually unpunished. The survey groups have indicated that the Indigenous people are susceptible to cyber bullying. Policy is used to handle cyber racism. But the Australian legislation has done little to handle the racial discrimination of the people. It is also very difficult with the current technology to address all the issues of cyber racism.  The indigenous people should be provided with awareness and information as to where they can seek help in cases of cyberbullying or attack.

Apart from this another issue that faces the young population is the issue of child pornography. There are explicit images that causes the young people to be susceptible to loss of their innocence and leads to them being exploited in the online medium.

There are a number of online awareness camps that has been used by the Indigenous communities to promote the online businesses (Radoll, 2012). The users can use the services peacefully when they are aware of the online digital footprint, practical advises of staying smart and a series of short animations to help the people understand their rights. This would protect the people to face the numerous issues. There has been progress in the past. But the access to these digital devices continue to exists. There are steep divides between other communities and Indigenous community. In spite of these efforts taken by the governments and the organization these processes continue to alienate the indigenous community from the mainstream technology. 

Cybersecurity is an issue that should be important for all the people. It is not limited to any one community. But in the case of indigenous community, there is already a divide. The people have made a lot of progress in the current century (Parkes, 2013). There is a divide that continues to separate the people. By providing safe and secure online interactions, there will be more amiability in the society. The people will start to feel that their needs are being fulfilled. There will be better community growth both inside the community and the Australian economy.  

The past efforts towards growth has been successful to a certain extent. But for the people to compete and aide towards the growth of Australia. There should be more efforts taken by all the stakeholders in the community 

In conclusion of this section, it can be found that the indigenous online users are likely to have secure systems but have lesser secure systems when compared to the national average. The people have made tremendous progress in the past and are likely to have mobile devices but again they are lesser than the national average. Owing to the technological growth there has been progress in the community nevertheless there is a lot more that needs to be done in the communities to enable and instill progress. The most important issue is the issue of security. The security to the people is more than that of malwares of virus attacks. The society issues of racism, bullying continue to haunt the people. There should be more awareness and governmental support to address these issues. This would lead to the development of the community as a whole.

Reference: 

Abrahamsen, R., & Leander, A. (Eds.). (2015). Routledge Handbook of Private Security Studies. Routledge.

Andreasson, K. (Ed.). (2015). Digital Divides: The New Challenges and Opportunities of e-Inclusion (Vol. 195). CRC Press.

Brookes, C. (2015). Cyber Security: Time for an integrated whole-of-nation approach in Australia. Indo-Pacific Strategic Papers.

Broucek, V., & Turner, P. (2012). Technical, legal and ethical dilemmas: distinguishing risks from malware and cyber-attack tools in the age of’cloud computing’. In 21st Annual EICAR Conference (pp. 72-79).

Choucri, N., & Jackson, C. (2016). Perspectives on Cybersecurity A Collaborative Study. Perspectives on Cybersecurity A Collaborative Study (February 18, 2016). MIT Political Science Department Research Paper, (2016-2).

Collins, A. (2016). Contemporary security studies. Oxford university press.

Edmonds, F. (2014). Digital storytelling and Aboriginal young people: an exploration of digital technology to support contemporary Koori culture. InMobile Media Making in an Age of Smartphones (pp. 92-103). Palgrave Macmillan US.

Janczewski, L. J., & Caelli, W. (2016). Cyber Conflicts and Small States. Routledge.

Ko, R., & Choo, R. (2015). The Cloud Security Ecosystem: Technical, Legal, Business and Management Issues. Syngress.

O’Brien, W. (2014). Australia’s Digital Policy Agenda. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 22(4), 748-775.

Parkes, A. (2013). The dreams of mobile young Aboriginal Australian people.

Price, K. (2015). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education: An introduction for the teaching profession. Cambridge University Press.

Radoll, P. (2012). Cyber-safety and indigenous youth. Indigenous L. Bull., 8, 11.

Rice, E. S., Haynes, E., Royce, P., & Thompson, S. C. (2016). Social media and digital technology use among Indigenous young people in Australia: a literature review. International journal for equity in health, 15(1), 1.

Shorten, B. (2016). For the Common Good: Reflections on Australia’s Future. Melbourne Univ. Publishing.

Triggs, G. (2013). Social inclusion and human rights in Australia. Speech at the Chain Reaction Foundation Breakfast Cafe Sydney.