The Mumbai police will educate college students about the safety aspects to be considered while surfing the Internet during the 'Cyber Safety Week', which is being organised with the help of the business community from August 18, 2003.

At a press conference, in which executives of business houses were present, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Dr Satyapal Singh emphasised on the need to have cyber awareness programmes.

"Now the importance of computers is increasing and cyber crime is also on the rise. So it is good to make people aware of cyber safety. There are around 2,000 cyber cafes in Mumbai. Many times crimes are committed from there.We are discussing with the people what we can do to stop cyber crime, because now it also threatens national security. There is content piracy, pornography being downloaded and many other things," he said.

In two years, he added, the cyber police had registered 16 cases of cyber crimes. "We have started filing charge sheets in those cases."

The business community is acting with the police to get people to start money transactions over the Internet, which has so far been considered a risky proposition.

The police will conduct similar seminars in different colleges in the city.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal will inaugurate the programme.

Rediff.com, Novell Software, Zenith Computers and Mastek Limited are among those who are sponsoring 'Cyber Safety Week'.

More reports from Maharashtra