Summary available

Thank you for joining Linda Raftree of Plan International USA and the New Tactics community for this conversation! Children have rights, including the right to be protected from violence, exploitation and abuse.  Yet, millions of children around the world suffer from threats at home, at school, in their communities, in institutions, while working, or when they are separated from their families.  To address this issue, new technology tools are being developed and adapted to support communities’ efforts to protect children. 

In Kenya, communities have adopted a digital birth registration process using mobile phones.  Having a legal identity through birth registration gives children greater access to their rights and reduces risks of trafficking, child labor, and child marriage.  In Benin, communities are using mobile phones to report violence against children. Over 100 reports on physical abuse and child trafficking have been received through this system and used to protect the victims and advocate for improved government resourcing to prevent violence.  There is also growing evidence that children and youth who have left their homes to seek work, to escape abuse or due to climate change, disaster or conflict are using mobile technologies to connect with each other and to needed resources.  These are just a few examples of how new technology tools can be applied to protect and support the most vulnerable populations of children. This online dialogue was an opportunity to learn and share the ways that communities and institutions are using and adopting new technology tools to protect their children.

Tactics shared

• DonkIT has overcome the difficulties of distance by using donkeys to transport resource centers for at-risk children throughout remote desert areas of Sudan.
• Child helplines within the same country have “harmonized phone numbers” so that children can easily memorize and recall them.
• In Australia, teachers schedule and manage video conferences between schoolchildren and Kids Helpline counselors by using an online booking database.
• In Europe, Insafe and Inhope coordinate the Safer Internet Program (link broken) to call attention and respond to potential risks of internet use throughout the region.
• In Sweden, BRIS facilitates child helplines via telephone, mail and online chat
• Thailand Childline Foundation, the Puenkaew Child Friendly Association, and Plan Thailand established the Caravan Project to create mobile counselling units that transport “art and play therapy” to children impacted by the tsunami and in times of telecommunication failure.
• The U.S. film, "What I Have Been Through Is Not Who I Am," brings the voices of exploited and forgotten children, adult survivors, law enforcement officers and prosecutors from across the country to the attention of our state and federal legislators.
• In Kenya’s Mathare slums, Map Kibera mapped all public defecation areas and presented its findings at a community forum to demonstrate the lack of clean, open spaces for children to play. As a result, community members worked together to clean up the areas, and the local government began installing toilets in the neighborhoods.

How is technology helping communities to protect children?

Participants shared that the technologies their communities use to help protect and empower children facilitate greater communication between children and service providers, creative expression, and advocacy for rights. Forms of technology mentioned include emergency hotlines, email, peer-to-peer forums, SMS texting, photography, resource centers, and digital mapping. Child helplines enable at-risk children to call a trusted and trained counselor, report cases of abuse or endangerment, and seek protection or removal from the situation. One participant shared that after a child connects with a counselor on the hotline, that counselor then assumes the responsibility of “rescue and retrieval” of the child. Services are free and provide an opportunity for children to advocate for themselves before their counselors, local officials, and global reports on children’s rights. In addition to helplines, participants also value the use of SMS texting and other “rapid” technology for immediate recording of abuses and unaccompanied children, digitization of birth registration, and mobilization among youth. SMS or video recording of abuses can be empowering for children in that they can self-report in their own words and on their own terms. Increasing and modernizing birth registration documents children and their rights, and in turn minimizes the ability of human traffickers and other threatening people to exploit and traffic the children. Other digital technologies such as mapping can effectively advocate for children by identifying harmful environmental patterns and presenting such evidence to powerful officials who can implement change. Similarly, photography and other art forms also allow youth to express themselves while advocating for their rights by documenting oppression and appealing to local officials or policymakers. Finally, resource centers allow youth to learn new technological skills, connect with each other, and find work, which promotes their agency and respect within their communities.

What are the biggest challenges and risks in using technology to protect children?

Challenges and risks of using technology for children’s empowerment include maintaining children’s access to protection services, safety and security of technology, adult involvement, and assessment of programs that strive to protect youth. Children may have limited access to services and technologies due to threats, location, or a lack of knowledge of available resources. One participant considered gender inequalities and sexism, asserting that organizers cannot automatically assume that females have safe or equal access to technologies or high levels of literacy. Another participant stressed that internet access alone does not guarantee empowerment, and that child protection services should strive to understand and create safe and appropriate spaces for counseling and other responses to abuse. Participants encourage evaluation of child protective programs, direct feedback from child participants, and involvement of parents to improve both the effectiveness of the programs and children’s safety.

Reporting violence or other abuses via the internet or SMS text messaging can be dangerous if a third party intercepts or manipulates the relayed information, or irrelevant if affected children are illiterate. Participants suggest adult organizers assume responsibility for more strategic planning of programs and higher levels of digital literacy to prevent ineffective and unequal practices. Some organizations also have consultants and published reports that promote safe social networking tactics that protect children from offensive material, coercion, and cyberbullying. To prevent childrens’ harassment as a consequence of technology use, participants suggested that organizations work to ensure anonymity and maintain internet security by using firewalls, password protection, and pre-approving contributions before publishing them online.

As many children may not have access to or knowledge of services available to them, organizations have attempted to engage children living on the streets or in other hostile situations by way of universal helpline numbers, mobile counseling, and youth outreach projects. Finally, monitoring child protection systems can be challenging as well, as there is not always a clearly defined individual or body responsible for children and upholding their rights. One participant suggested promoting all citizens’ accountability for protecting all children’s rights to increase widespread awareness and urgency to advocate for all children in society, instead of solely those belonging to one’s immediate family.  

What new opportunities exist for the use of technology for child protection?

Technology offers many progressive opportunities for both protecting and empowering youth. Participants referenced a variety of progressive mediums and uses of technology for child protection, ranging from tracking software, mobile phones, online chats, video conferences, and voice-based interventions such as radio broadcasts. As technology continues to advance, participants suggested that mobile apps and social networking will become increasingly relevant for child protective services. Online booking softwares and video conferences can allow children to confidentially communicate with teachers and trusted counselors regardless of their location home situations. With respect to vulnerable migrant children or children on the move, ICTs can track their locations and connect them with family and friends in their home countries to promote their safety and security. In other cases, however, children utilize technology to express  and empower themselves. One participant cited the success of children’s involvement in video and radio broadcast productions by making their voices and opinions heard, and further enabling communication with others who call or text in during the broadcause to share their input or reactions. Participants suggested strengthening institutions that protect children by collaborating with accredited universities, researchers, and other academics. Finally,  it is important that programs consider and respond to the concerns and interests of children in order to adapt to their needs in a respectable, effective, and even fun manner.

Resources

Blog posts by dialogue participant Linda Raftree of Plan International USA

• 7 (or more) questions to ask before adding ICTs
• 11 Concerns about ICTs and Social Media for Social Good
• Child participation at events: getting it right
• Community based child protection
• Modernizing Birth Registration with Mobile Technology
• Incorporating ICT into proposals,
• Videos of mHealth Summit participants giving advice and opinions about the “realities” of using ICTs in health

Child Helpline International

• "A Guide to Child Participation Practice in Child Helplines - He Who Wears the Shoe Knows Where it Pinches”
• "Connecting to Children," a global data report that describes the demographics of children contacting child helplines and the issues for which they asked help
• List of CHI members
• Portal of Child Helpline International hotline numbers around the world

Reports & other publications

• 2011 Australian Overview of Issues Concerning Children and Young People published by Kids Helpline contains more information about the methods young people use to ask for help, including the rising use of mobile phones
• Beyond Access' "Empowering Women and Children Through ICT at Libraries," a report and resource on secure access to ICTs for girls
• CHILDLINE 1098 Night & Day, a publication documenting the works of the Indian non-profit child helpline organization CHILDLINE
• Child Mobility in West and Central Africa, a study by a consortium of child protection groups
• Child Safety Online, a study published by UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre in 2011 that examines child sex abuse recorded in images, the grooming of young people for sex, and cyberbullying.
• Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, a study by Henry Jenkins, Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Early Exodus and Child Trafficking in West Africa: What progress have working children and youth made?, a 2008 report by the African Movement of Working Children and Youth
• Exploring children's experiences of migration: movement and family relationships, a report on child migrants from the UK’s Centre for Research on Families and Relationships
• List of guides and publications from CHILDLINE India that address issues of child protection in India and ways to confront them
• Migrant Documentation Project, a report by Amnesty International that utilizes ICTs to track and protect migrants, including children
• Mobile Technologies for Child Protection, a 2011 briefing note from UNICEF
• Report from the International Conference on Children on the Move (Barcelona, 2010).
• The AMWCY’s 2009 report “From the gong gong to ICTs”

Toolkits and Guides

• A How-To Booklet from Security-in-a-box that considers tools and tactics for digital security
• A community event page from the Internet Governance Forum Community Site for the discussion of innovative application of ICTs to facilitate child protection online
• Cybersafety campaign by Kids Helpline and Optus that focuses on assisting responsible adults to teach children how to stay safe online
• FrontlineSMS User Guide on Data Integrity for safe and secure design, implementation, and monitoring of digital technology practices
• Trace My Shadow, a site from OnoRobot that explains how your information is vulnerable on different devices, in different ways
• Using Radio to Empower and Engage Communities, a New Tactics dialogue
• Video from OnoRobot about safety practices for mobile phones
• Wiki pages on the Ushahidi Toolkits and Best Practices for effective organizing and ICT use