Ruthlyn James | The sleeping guard at the screen

Jamaica is moving towards restricting social media access for children under the age of 16. The proposal has stirred many opinions and statements, some from clinicians and some from opinionated advocates. Cyberbullying, online sexual predators and the growing mental health concerns associated with excessive digital engagement have scaled the fence.

However, protection cannot start and end with mere restriction. Every gate needs a guard. Limiting entry without empowering those responsible for safeguarding the digital environment is whipping a hors, pulling a cart that far outweighs its strength.

This is where the recent work of Tazio R. Stewart and Dr Zandy U. Elliott deserves national attention. Their study, A Quantitative Descriptive Analysis of Law Enforcement Capabilities in Combating Cybercrime in Jamaica, asks a question that reaches far beyond policing: Is Jamaica developing the institutional capacity, specialised workforce and technological capability required to confront an increasingly sophisticated digital threat?

Drawing on surveys of both law enforcement personnel and civilians, the study found widespread agreement that cybercrime in Jamaica is becoming more frequent, more sophisticated, and increasingly difficult to detect. More importantly, the study identifies shortages in specialised personnel, technical expertise, and forensic capability. Those shortages did not begin at the gates of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). They began years earlier when education failed to identify, develop and intentionally channel children whose cognitive strengths align with technology.

Cybercrime is not simply a policing issue. It is an education, workforce, and economic issue. We like to say, “Dem pickney yah born wid phone ina dem hand”. Today’s children are the first generation to arrive at school already fluent in a digital language. They swipe before they can write, search before they can spell and navigate applications long before they understand the systems behind them. Many of the individuals now appearing before the courts on allegations of phishing, online fraud and other cyber-related offences are young adults in their 20s.

The reality is that Jamaica must decide whether to raise children as passive consumers of technology or intentionally prepare them. Access alone does not develop a nation’s capabilities. Too often, I encounter children who are more digitally fluent than the adults responsible for teaching and parenting them.

The challenge is no longer whether AI belongs in education, but whether we are teaching children to use it ethically, critically and responsibly. The JTA recently argued that students must be taught not simply how to use AI, but how to interrogate its output, recognise inaccuracies and bias, and acknowledge its use appropriately. It further called for a national AI policy rather than leaving individual schools to navigate these challenges alone.

Working alongside children on the autism spectrum has continually challenged my own understanding of intelligence. Too often, ability is measured by eye contact, handwriting, conversation or how quietly a child sits in a classroom. Yet I have watched children who struggle with reciprocal conversation instinctively navigate tablets and master software with little instruction. When we place some of these children in a structured digital environment, something remarkable often happens. Their attention sharpens, and persistence becomes an advantage.

Dr Katie Paxton-Fear, an autistic cybersecurity researcher and ethical hacker, has spoken openly about how her autistic traits have become strengths in identifying security vulnerabilities. Her career illustrates that the same cognitive profile often misunderstood in classrooms can become a national asset when recognised, nurtured and ethically directed. There are many neurodivergent children in Jamaica waiting for approval to learn and work within their strengths. Books and pencils may not be their tools for success.

The Ministry of Education should be commended for its initiative to expand digital capacity in schools and for embracing AI as a tool to support teaching and learning. While ensuring teachers themselves receive the training required to lead children responsibly. The next challenge is ensuring that every child is taught not merely to access these technologies, but to think critically with them, question them, use them responsibly, and safeguard them.

The irony is that today’s children could become tomorrow’s greatest protectors of their grandparents. As more seniors adopt online banking and digital government services, many already depend on the young to handle passwords and electronic transactions. Cybersecurity is therefore no longer just about protecting children; it is also about preparing them to protect the generations that raised them. They are future data defenders, and data is the new gold.

A JCF member expressed the view that the law must use its teeth. Cybercriminals must be held accountable, but we also need to apply clinical understanding to what drives them and how their interests and capabilities can be used as valuable information for training or bigger arrests. He emphasised that Jamaica needs to develop some of these youths into ethical hackers. He was saddened by the increasing number of youngsters facing the court when their potential could be an asset for national development or security.

Every cybersecurity strategy is ultimately an education strategy. Jamaica is not starting from zero. However, the missing link is ensuring that education policy deliberately identifies, nurtures, and develops children to be more than just consumers. The sleeping guard at the screen is not simply the investigator without adequate resources or the officer without sufficient technology. The sleeping guard is also the nation that overlooks the child with unique interests, often clothed in the perception of failure. The safest screen is not created by fear of technology. It is created by deliberately educating enough people to stand guard over it.

Ruthlyn James is the founding director of Adonijah Group of Schools Therapy and Assessment Centre. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com