The ministry has called on all content producers from writers, to animators and artists to submit their work through the website kudakonlinefest.ir.
A jury will select the best works after the submission time ends on Dec. 21. The finalists will be awarded cash prizes in a ceremony slated for spring, the festival’s website reported.
Works eligible for participating in the festival include, but are not limited to, stories, short animations, web series, and educational material, according to Financial Tribune.
In addition to cash prizes the ministry is trying to provide local content producers the opportunity to introduce their services, promote their products, and attract investments.
The children’s ever-growing application of the Internet has goaded Iranian startups, knowledge-based firms and artists to introduce online services compatible with Iranian culture.
Furthermore, concerned with the increasing amount of time children spend online, parents have been looking for ways to control and monitor kids activities on the World Wide Web.
However, according to a survey by the ICT Ministry, most parents remain unfamiliar with online parental control services or do not have access to it.
The ministry points to the chronic shortage of proper content for children. Through the festival, the authorities hope to promote both the parental control services and boost activities of Iranian artists and content producers.
Systemic efforts have been made to devise new means for monitoring kids’ Internet access and numerous applications and online platforms have been launched to help ease online parental control.
For instance tech firm Dorsa Family has introduced a full suite of parental control tools in a mobile application aimed at keeping kids safe online, by blocking access to inappropriate websites.
The parental control app 'Donyaye Dorsa' (Dorsa's world), lets parents restrict kids' access to communication services and limit undesired material available online. The app can be downloaded directly from the firm’s website dorsafamily.ir.
However, controlling kids’ access to the Internet would of itself not solve the problem since there always are several ways to circumvent such limits. Kids have become more tech-savvy than their parents. Offering quality and children-friendly material that can draw the attention of kids would indeed be a better solution to the growing universal problem.