The Internet Industry Association of Singapore (IIAS) announced two nation wide initiatives at its inauguration yesterday.

The first initiative involves a fund to offer help and counseling to children exposed to inappropriate material online and education campaigns to raise awareness of the risks children are exposed to online. The IIAS is also planning to help set up a privacy portal to assist consumers in dealing with spam.

Also in the pipeline for the new organization is a two-day conference to be held here in June focusing on cyber-security issues in the region.

The association will be setting up two special interest groups that will deal with both consumer and business concerns. Speaking at the launch, Minister of Education Tharman Shanmugaratnam said the Government was keen to work with the association on its initiatives.

The founding members of IIAS include eBay Singapore, Yahoo! Southeast Asia, Genovate Solutions, Macromedia South Asia, Microsoft Singapore, Zuji and Nets. – Seah Siew Hua.