Earlier today, Akshay Kumar shared an anecdote involving his 13-year-old daughter Nitara Kumar, for the Inauguration of Cyber Awareness Month at the State Police Headquarters in Mumbai.

Explaining the incident which took place a few months back, Akshay shared how online gaming can often involve playing with complete strangers on the internet, people whose identity you cannot decipher at face value. He shared, “While you are playing, sometimes a message comes from there…Then a message came, Are you male or female? So she replied female. And then he sent a message. ‘Can you send me nude pictures of yours?’ It was my daughter. She switched off the whole thing and she went and told my wife.”

While Nitara was smart and quick to immediately go share the harrowing incident with mother Twinkle Khanna, there are worse ways situations like this may unfold. Akshay continued, “This is how things begin. This is also a part of cybercrime…I would request the Chief Minister that in our Maharashtra state, every week in the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth standards, there should be a period called cyber period where children should be explained about it. You all know that this crime is becoming bigger than street crime. It is very important to stop this crime…”

His appeal to the government, with regards to including cyber education as a weekly subject for young adults in schools, stemmed from the need to help inform these young minds, sharp and affirmative ways to keep themselves safe in the ever-evolving digital-scape — for the space may not ‘be’ the real world, but the dire consequences that stem from it, can be scarring.

Other notable figures present at the event, were Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Director General of Police (Maharashtra) Rashmi Shukla, IPS Iqbal Singh Chahal and Rani Mukerji to name a few.