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POP: Protection through online Participation

POP: PROTECTION TROUGH ONLINE PARTICIPATION

NEWS

	Hackathon on Empowering Gender Equality through Open Source Innovation Join us in our collaboration with the UN Office of Information and Communications and Technology (OICT) for an Open-Source Software for SDGs Hackathon on Empowering Gender Equality through Open Source Innovation. Increasing numbers of children and young people are seeking help online when they are exposed to some form of online or offline violence. Take this opportunity to share your ideas for improving how children and young people, women and girls, use the internet to access safety and protection when exposed to violence including domestic violence, bullying and harassment or sexual violence. Join the movement to create innovative and open-source safety solutions for SDG5: OSS4SDG - Gender Equality

	Help us learn more about how children use the internet to stay safe - Take the survey Are you an official help service, a young person having ever used online platforms to seek help and support, an industry platform that can share insights on how children access protection or an AI driven system platform? Then answer a survey to help us learn more about how children use the internet to stay safe.

UNDERSTANDING HOW CHILDREN AND YOUTH USE DIGITAL PLATFORMS TO BE SAFE

Children and young people are increasingly turning to the online world when at risk of any form of violence, online or offline. They access helplines, hotlines, counseling services, and violence reporting systems, and they also use digital platforms to create solutions for the protection needs of their peers. However, there is little information about how these systems operate.

The protection community has been very focused on understanding the risks that children face online - and we need to continue to do that - but it hasn't yet fully understood the other side of the coin: how thanks to having access to the Internet, children can also be safer. Evidence is showing how sometimes the Internet is the only means through which children can access safety, especially in times of lockdown and isolation. This adds an additional layer of complexity to the digital divide, as children who have access to the Internet have higher chances of accessing protection than those who don't. There is a need to bridge that gap.

How are digital platforms an entry point to being safer?

Every child who has access to the Internet, should also have access to online protection system. POP, Protection through online participation, has the vision of a world where children and young people can safely access support and referral systems through online means, having increased possibilities to receive support, either from their peers or official services.

Through intersectoral cooperation and an evidence-based approach, POP will provide insights into how online protection systems function, in order to share recommendations to the world on how to implement and improve these services. Led by United Nations Agencies, POP is working with over 30 global partners - private sector companies, academia, civil society organizations and children and young people themselves - on making recommendations for implementing or improving online protection services.

Children are turning to the online world to be safe

They are reporting violence. They are connecting with helplines through online means. They are receiving counselling. They are connecting with services. They are coming up with innovative solutions to address the protection needs of their peers.

By better understanding how they're doing it, we can help them get the help they need.

In 2021, disturbed by the reports of rising domestic violence under the coronavirus lockdown, a Polish adolescent girl launched a fake online shop to offer a lifeline to victims trapped in their homes. Victims can hide requests for help from their abuser at home by appearing to shop online. When a victim writes asking to buy a cream, a psychologist responds instead of a salesperson and asks how the "skin problems" have been going on or how the affected skin reacts to alcohol. If someone places an order and leaves an address. It is a code asking for authorities to visit their home.

HOW IS POP DOING THIS

The aim of Pop is twofold:

Combine the evidence collected through quantitative surveys and in-depth learnings from child helplines, children and youth, and the ICT industry and amplify this information by making it accessible through a digital map.
Analyse the collected data and publish a report with recommendations for countries, child protection professionals, children and youth and the ICT industry around the world to effectively develop, implement and improve protection services functioning online.

This research is focused on three different support systems online that may be used by children and young people to access protection when they are at risk of victims of violence (online or offline):

Official support services (like helplines and hotlines).
Child and young-led solutions.
Artificial intelligence-driven systems.

1) By collecting the evidence by disseminating surveys

PoP will collect the evidence by disseminating three surveys on the three systems - complementing with qualitative research where appropriate. In addition, PoP will collect lessons learned from the ICT industry whose platforms may be used for one or more of the above-listed systems.

Help us learn more about how children use the internet to stay safe.

Are you an official help service?
Are you a young person having ever used online platforms to seek help and support?
Are you an industry platform that can share insights on how children access protection?
Are you an AI driven system platform?

Then answer the respective survey.

2) By combining evidence collected through POP mapping with in-depth learnings from child helplines, children and youth, and the ICT industry.

In-depth interviews with children and youth leading protection solutions using the internet.
Evidence collected through POP mapping.
Learning from the ICT industry on how their platforms are used to access safety.
In-depth interviews with selected child helplines from different regions