UNICEF engages in protecting children from online exploitation

The United Nations children’s Fund, UNICEF is engaged in protecting children from harassment and exploitation on the internet.

The Cameroon country office of UNICEF says the move is intended to assist adolescents in making the best out of online services without falling prey to cyber bullying and other vices that come along with the use of ICTs.

This, we gathered, will be done through a #ReplyforAll campaign embedded in UNICEF’s initiative to end violence against children. Supported by the We Protect Global Alliance which is engaged in preventing online child abuse and exploitation, the initiative would empower adolescents to be key players in ensuring their own security online.

A press release from the country office in Yaounde indicates that children and adolescents will be given the opportunity to provide suggestions on how their security online can be guaranteed. This would include proposals on how to react in the face of online violence.

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Children taking part in the exercise, we learnt, would also be encouraged to share the knowledge with their friends via social media.

A key area of the initiative, according to the release, would be sexual exploitation of children online.

A publication by UNICEF, IPSOS, and We Protect, dubbed Perils and Possibilities: Growing up online, indicates that inasmuch as access to social networks and the World Wide Web provide young people with incredible opportunities for education, entertainment, entrepreneurship, innovation etc, there is a need to address the numerous risks that come along with these opportunities.

Associate director & global chief of child protection at UNICEF, Cornelius Williams, highlights some key facts in the publication containing findings from a recent UNICEF/Ipsos global poll of more than 10,000 18-year-olds in 25 countries, representing worldwide coverage.

“As Internet access becomes more accessible, violence against children takes on new dimensions with deeply damaging and life-altering consequences,” he writes, citing the cases of children who have been victims of online sexual exploitation.

Among the cases cited (with Pseudo names) is the case of 9 year-old Lorna from the Philippines, who he said, was forced to perform sexual acts that were live streamed on the internet, and purchased by offenders from another part of the world. So too was the case of Jessica from Brazil whose cell phone is said to have been stolen and whose private photos were circulated around her school and town.

There is also the case of 17-year-old Jenny from Madagascar who met a man on social media who abducted and repeatedly raped her for two months.

Cornelius Williams believes UNICEF’s #ReplyforAll, campaign that puts adolescents on the front and centre as messengers and advocates to keep themselves safe online, would protect children from being victims.

“When young people, governments, families, the ICT sector and communities work together, we are more likely to find the best ways to respond to online sexual abuse and exploitation, and send a strong message that confronting and ending violence against children online – indeed anywhere – is all of our business,” he says.