The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

The Government’s cyber response team is is drafting a Child Online Protection Strategy that it hopes to have approved by Cabinet this year.

Sametria McKinney, the National Computer Incident Response Team of The Bahamas (CIRT-BS) director, yesteray told a conference organised by Aliv that the children of today are digital natives and part of the future workforce, so they must be protected while online.

CIRT-BS is responsible for developing and implementing an national cyber security strategy that was launched in 2024, and Ms McKinney said child online protection is embedded in this. Ms McKinney said he team is working to ensure the draft has legal instruments in placed to protect children.

“And then education awareness is really the first pillar for us,” she said. “The way how we do this is by making you all aware that this issue exists and it's important to the country, it's important to me.

“We need them in your business. We need them at the policymaker level. And then international collaboration, because we can't invent the wheel. We are a small island state. We don't have all these resources. So we need to partner with people who have done this work. There are programmes and policies designed specifically to protect children online, and this is who we're working with now for the strategy as we drive the strategy.

“The goal here is to make sure that this is at the national level, and this is why we are publishing a national strategy on child online protection. I'm going to be coming around. You're going to hear me talk about this more and more, because this child online protection strategy is one of our gold star projects this year out of CIRT-BS,” Ms McKinney said.

“I'm pushing the agenda, because I want to make sure that children are safe online, but also that their rights are protected; that online is a place where they can thrive, where they can learn, where they socialise, they can play. They can be children without being harmed. I want to give a call of action to all of you, because this education and awareness system, this is the big, big piece of the pie…”

Many children, according to Ms McKinney, are suffering from online abuse and not reporting it because The Bahamas has no mechanism in place for this. She said businesses play a role in protecting children and must protect themselves from reputational damage that may occur if children happen to be harmed while using a company’s online platform. 

CIRT-BS, in an assessment to support its Child Online Protection Strategy, found that 94.4 percent of all Bahamians have access to the Internet. Ms McKinney said child sexual exploitation and abuse involves online grooming, cyber bullying, exploitation, manipulation and exposure to harm.

Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, said cyber security “shapes investor confidence, financial system stability, trade facilitation and the overall competitiveness of our nation”. He added that digital adoption is accelerating across sectors, especially financial services, tourism, e-commerce and small business operations, bringing with it increased exposure to cyber risks.

Mr Halkitis said cyber threats are growing across Latin America and the Caribbean, costing the region billions of dollars annually in direct losses, operational disruption and reputational damage. He said the most prevalent attacks include ransomware, business e-mail compromise, and financial fraud.

With finance and tourism representing the “central pillars” of the Bahamian economy, Mr Halkitis said this nation needs secure digital infrastructure and trusted data environments otherwise the country may face economic consequences.

“The Organisation of American States recently completed a maturity assessment of member states across the region,” he added. “The findings highlight encouraging progress in national strategy development and incident response capacity. At the same time, the assessment points to continued gaps in workforce development, sector level risk management and regulatory alignment. For small states, in particular, resource constraints and limited specialised expertise remain key challenges.

“The Bahamas recognises these realities. Through our already-launched National Cyber Security Strategy and our Digital Transformation Strategy, currently under development, we are strengthening governance structures, expanding technical capacity and enhancing co-ordination across ministries and with the private sector. 

“The work of the National Computer Incident Response Team plays an important role in this digital journey and continues to contribute to improved readiness and structured response mechanisms.” Cyber security should be seen an investment, as investors are now assessing cyber resilience, Mr Halkitis said.

“Small and medium-sized enterprises remain the backbone of our economy. Many are embracing new digital platforms to expand market access and streamline operations. However, smaller enterprises often face limited resources to manage cyber risk,” he added.

“Strengthening awareness, promoting practical risk management frameworks, and encouraging adoption of baseline security standards will be critical to protecting this segment of our economy.

“Cyber security also presents opportunity. Regional projections show steady growth in demand for cyber security services, digital compliance expertise and secure cloud infrastructure. This represents potential for job creation, professional services expansion and technology driven entrepreneurship within The Bahamas.”

Mr Halkitis said: “Data protection and digital trust will remain central to sustainable economic growth. We are confident that the soon-to-be-completed new Digital Transformation Strategy will bring all of these elements together into a single national framework with digital public infrastructure and data security at its core.”