Online child sexual exploitation and abuse is still a serious emergency that is not always easy to combat. LEAGUE has the ambitious goal of curtailing this phenomenon by preparing professionals working with children to identify signs of online sexual abuse and address these issues through prevention and support tools.
Thus, various workshops have been held in recent months to train parents and teachers on the topic of online child abuse. The training days were moderated by lawyer Rosalia Castro, from the Juvenile Chamber of Palermo, an expert on online violence, and lawyer Serena Lombardo.
The moderators of the event shared how during the last few years it has been registered a 50% increase in child pornography cases, a worryingly large figure. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the data on complaints handled by the Postal Police have been steadily increasing, especially regarding cases of spreading of child pornographic images, dissemination of child pornographic material, online grooming and child prostitution.
During the training days, it emerged that the first strategy to tackle this phenomenon is prevention, which can cover various approaches, such as: sex education courses that helps minors to define limits and establish interactions and relations based on consent, the adoption of a parental control system for minors when using online platforms, and digital education based on the conscious and safe use of social media.
The facilitators shared with participants also key support strategies to deal with disclosure, emphasising that in order to create a fruitful dialogue, it is necessary to establish a dialogue that excludes any judgemental comments towards the victim. Only in this way it will be possible to minimise the minor’s feeling of inadequacy and establish a virtuous relationship based on trust.
To accompany the safe use of digital tools, a digital literacy course has also been proposed for adults dealing with minors. This should help parents, teachers, professionals to understand the new contexts of interaction of the youngest.
About the project
LEAGUE – Limiting online sexual Exploitation and Abuse Gender based on Underaged boys by Educating experts is a project funded by the program Erasmus+, Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers – CERV-2021-DAPHNE.
Partners
- LAW AND INTERNET FOUNDATION – LIF (Coordinator, Bulgaria)
- INSTITUT PRAVNIH ZNANOSTI MARIBOR – OPHIZ (Slovenia)
- CESIE (Italy)
- CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY HELLAS – CERTH (Greece)
- SYNYO (Austria)
For further information
Read more about the project, visit the web site https://project-league.eu/ and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn e Twitter.
Contact Cristina Idone Befecadu: cristina.idonebefecadu@cesie.org.
