A new generation protected from digital exploitation

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

We live in a world that has been transformed into a small village, thanks to the widespread use of gadgets that allow everyone to connect to the Internet.  But this new openness and connectedness is both a blessing and a curse, especially for children and youth who enjoy the benefits of being active digital citizens, but are also exposed to all of its risks.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2014, more than 48 per cent of households in Palestine had an Internet connection and 63 per cent owned at least one computer. Chatting online and surfing the Internet are one of the few amusements for Palestinian children, due the lack of child friendly spaces and restriction on movement of people due to ongoing political/military concerns. Children enjoy surfing on the World Wide Web, but sometimes they reveal too much information on social networks, putting themselves at risk of being endangered by predators.  As well, cyberbullying has become prevalent and children are prone to being emotionally and physically abused, subjected to online threats and receiving harmful messages that could hurt their reputations in a conservative society.

World Vision has been in the forefront of addressing children’s safety online in the communities where it works in the Holy Land. The organization has launched a special programme called Keeping Children Safe Online (KCSO), to provide children and youth with digital literacy skills to protect themselves and others from online abuse and sexual exploitation. The project is aimed at providing best practices, guidelines and tools to children and their caregivers to combat exploitation through online trafficking, and protect the victims of online abuse. The programme has also created a complaints mechanism, where online incidents are reported and appropriately addressed by local authorities.

The KCSO programme was initially piloted in five West Bank communities where World Vision works and has now been integrated intoof all World Vision’s operations in the West Bank. It offers children, aged seven and up, tailored training that’s appropriate to their age group. Training sessions in online safety were also organized for relevant police units, parents, teachers, caregivers, and school counselors.

The KCSO programme has also set up a network of stakeholders, including the Palestinian Cyber Crime Unit, the Ministries of Social Affairs and Education, and several local telecommunications companies including Hadara, one of the main internet service providers in Palestine. Hadara has launched a security service called “Aman” within its packages for internet services subscription, which blocks malicious content and access to unsafe websites.

“World Vision has made great progress in changing current practices among children and parents related to internet usage to enhance online safety measures,” Yousef Al-Khateeb, Head of Marketing Department at Hadara technologies said. “The numbers of subscribers for ‘Aman’ increased a lot after the implementation of KCSO. Not only that, the programme also equipped children to protect themselves on social media, and to avoid connecting to an illegal operator, which increases their chances of being victims to cybercrimes or hacking.”

Abu Aws, a 45-year old community member and a father of four from Siris, a village in the Jenin area, strongly endorses the KCSO programme, noting that local internet cafes in cities and towns are always full of children who don’t always understand the dangers that are lurking online.

“I took the training with World Vision and have been an active volunteer to deliver the key messages to my children and promote a safer internet environment ever since,” he said. “I conducted training sessions for local parents and for children in school, in addition to interested partners that work in the area.”

World Vision has developed a manual on how to “Keep Children Safe Online”, which has been adopted and accredited by the Ministry of Education as part of the curriculum that counsellors teach children in schools. This is seen as a great advancement in the Ministry’s approach to education in Palestine to help children adapt to rapid changes in modern technologies. This also insures the sustainability of the KCSO programme and passing on the knowledge and skills to the new generations of online users.