Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 2026 : Malayalam superstar Mammootty has been appointed Kerala Police’s ‘Cyber Security Captain’ as the state intensifies efforts to tackle the growing menace of cybercrime through a community-driven awareness programme.
The appointment was announced by Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala at a function held at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Saturday. The minister also inaugurated CLICK (Community Led Initiative for Cyber Resilient Kerala), a programme developed by the Kerala Police Cyber Wing under the Home Department. The initiative aims to make Kerala completely cyber-resilient by 2027.
Addressing the gathering, Chennithala stressed that cybercrimes must be prevented rather than simply investigated after they occur. Although eliminating cybercrime entirely was difficult in the digital age, he said, effective preventive measures and greater public awareness could help contain the threat.
Mammootty urged young people to take an active role in the fight against cybercrime and called on parents to guide their children in using technology responsibly. He cautioned against handing smartphones to children whenever they cried or insisted on something simply to pacify them.
Until children develop the maturity to use mobile phones responsibly, parents should consider giving them basic feature phones, he suggested. Pointing out that inventions could be used for both beneficial and harmful purposes, he said the internet was no exception.
Mammootty also highlighted the growing risks associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI), observing that technological advances had increased the possibilities of misleading people. He said society needed to develop the ability to identify cyber threats, use the internet responsibly and prevent its misuse. He described CLICK as a step towards building such awareness.
During the programme, the actor presented CLICK Captain caps to 10 selected students, encouraging young people to become ambassadors of cyber safety.
Chennithala said more than 54,000 cyber fraud complaints were registered in Kerala last year. He noted that fraudsters often took advantage of the limited technological awareness of ordinary citizens.
The minister advised people to adopt basic digital security practices, including using strong passwords, regularly updating applications, protecting personal data and avoiding suspicious links.
He urged victims of online fraud to immediately report incidents by calling the national cybercrime helpline 1930.
Chennithala also announced that his office would become fully digitalised from November 3. An online complaint facility and a dashboard would be introduced to enable people to submit grievances and track their progress.
