Tirana, February 28, 2019 – The National Safer Internet Centre in Albania, CRCA and Telekom Albania organized an open forum on “Online Bullying towards Children and Adolescents in Albania”. The latest report based on National Platform data www.ISIGURT.al shows that bullying on the Internet has become the most reported concern for children and young people.
During 2016-2018, the National Platform of www.ISIGURT.al received over 200 reports of online incidents from children and young people, of which 136 of them are online cases with inappropriate images and hate speech, sexual harassment, psychological abuse and insult, identity theft or pornography. The most affected age of such incidents is 11 to 18 years old, where among the most exposed is the age group of 15-17 years of age. About 46% of the reports come from boys, while 43% of them from girls. The main platforms and networks where children and youth report online incidents are Instagram, followed by YouTube, Facebook etc. Fewer reports are made for Albanian-based pages.
Faced with an increased number of online incidents, it is our job to raise awareness among children, adolescents and youth and their parents, on how to safely navigate on the internet, while cultivate new behaviours that promote respect and accountability on the internet from everyone.
The Forum started with the presentation of the new initiative “Champions of Safer Internet” of young people taking place for the first time ever in Albania. 32 students from all Tirana’s High Schools have been trained and informed from CRCA / ECPAT Albania and Safer Internet Center as peer educators in their schools to be able to share with their friends on how to navigate safely online and where to report incidents of online safety. The initiative aims to become a child and youth-led national initiative that changes the ways how children and youth use the internet. Champions of Safer Internet will also organise school meetings with students, parents and teachers to inform and raise awareness on how Internet can become safer.
During the forum our partner Telekom Albania presented the online BULLYPROOF QUIZ, where young people by answering questions on the way they behave on internet they can discover whether they are bullies towards their online peers or friends. The aim of the quiz is to pinpoint the adolescents to where they make cause a harm to their peers and how to prevent such practices.