Cyber Abuse: How is being handled?

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Children are at risk of being harassed on the Internet, according to UNICEF. Some governments have already implemented strategies to combat this problem

According to UNICEF and the Ipsos firm's survey done to young people from various parts of the world, affirms that children, in the case of Latin America, run the risk not only of being harassed but of being sexually abused through the Internet.

Leer en español: Acoso a niños en Internet ¿Cómo se está enfrentando?

"Worldwide, one in three Internet users is a boy or a girl," says the agency. Although there are no figures or official data of the countries that suffer more harassment than others, inappropriate content was identified more frequently in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Colombia, according to a study by Kaspersky Lab, entitled "Children in line "of the year 2014.

Kaspersky Lab points out that users of these countries, who may have been children or adults, easily accessed pornographic content, violent sites, drugs, and gambling, among others.

So, although it is not a secret that you can browse anything on the Internet, the solution lies, in the segmentation of content and the control exercised by parents over what their children consume and the virtual relationships that they hold in their social networks.

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Initiatives to face harassment of children on the Internet

In Mexico, Children Rights Network together with Facebook and UNICEF created the project called Center for the Prevention of Bullying. According to UNICEF, "it seeks to join forces with strategic allies to offer tools that help adolescents, parents, and educators to avoid and combat bullying, guaranteeing their protection against abuse, exploitation, and violence on the Internet."

In addition, the initiative allows parents to have a special section in which they "receive information that helps them identify if their child is a victim of harassment, or if, on the contrary, they are harassing others, with suggestions on how to approach them. the problem from home."

The Ministry of Information Technology and Communication of the Santos government created two platforms. "In TIC Confío” (I trust you), to promote responsible use of the Internet and "Te Protejo”, which invites parents to report cyber crimes, such as child pornography and cyberbullying.

"Te Protejo" (I protect you), according to MinTic's official page is to be a whistleblower channel where parents report "situations that put risking children in the network, in order to avoid sexual abuse and harassment." This initiative is supported by the National Police, which is responsible for strictly monitoring the reported cases "to guarantee the protection of children, restore their rights, and prosecute those who break the law."

Step by step denouncing on the platform "I protect you":

• Login to www.teprotejo.org
• Fill in the online form hosted on the 'Report' button.
• Identify the crime: child pornography, commercial sexual exploitation, school bullying and cyberbullying, among others.
• It is important to save the evidence: do not delete the chats and save the screenshots that show the facts.

For its part, "En Tic Confío" makes available videos and articles that seek to create not only a responsible and safe use of the Internet for children and parents but invites to report abnormal facts on the Internet that are affecting their children. "With 'In TIC Confío', 1,042,000 people were reached in person across the country, adding more than 3 million beneficiaries since 2011."

Thus, it should be noted that the challenges are not only from the proposals of different governments worldwide but also the ability of parents to know the social relationships that their children are having on the Internet and the contents they consult. This will serve to combat Internet harassment against children and thus avoid facts that it will be regretted in the future.

LatinAmerican Post | Edwin Gustavo Guerrero Nova

Translated from: 'Acoso a niños en Internet ¿Cómo se está enfrentando?'