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Learnings from the ICTs industries - POP Survey for the industries

In your work as Trust and Safety advocates, we know that you’re constantly looking to make your platforms safer and mitigate the potential harms technology poses for children. Our PoP – Protection through Online Participation – initiative would like to explore the positive effects of your platforms by documenting their use by children (anyone under the age of 18) and young people (under 24) to access safety and protection when they experience or feel at risk of harm, whether online or offline. This is not only about online safety, but about how online platforms are used to access safety, protection and support.

Even if they have caring adults in their lives, we know that children increasingly search for help online, including on your platforms, when they feel threatened by harm, such as in-person experiences like domestic violence, sexual violence, school-based bullying or even mental distress in general. Harm doesn’t need to be happening inside your platforms for children to use your platforms to access help, support, and protection. They could be experiencing offline in-person abuse, and they could turn to the Internet to look for help, support, safety and protection. When they find it, they connect with child helplines, services, counselors, and others. If we understand how to efficiently deliver the help and support children are searching for, we can make children safer, increase their sense of security and wellness and even save lives. 

Please answer this form to help us better understand and document how children and young people are using the Internet to access support, safety and protection. It should only take 10 to 15 minutes of your time to complete, but may help thousands of children in the future to access the help they need. 

Our goal is to collect the views of technology companies and digital platforms being used by children. It focuses on what you have learned about children and young people using your platforms to access support, safety and protection when at risk of any form of harm. We will not ask you to disclose internal research or data, and you are not required to identify your name or company when responding to this form. If you wish to share good practices from your safety centers, there will be an option to do so at the end of the form.

Please refer to the FAQs section of this website for more information on the purpose of the survey, how the information will be used, and the partners behind the initiative. If you have any questions, please write to luisa.sotomayorvarela@un.org and fanny.rotino@itu.int 

There are two separate forms. Please complete the survey entitled "Questions about your platform profile" first, followed by the survey entitled "Good practice"

If you wish to review the questions before answering the form, you can download a PDF version here. Please make sure to answer the form using the online version.

Frequently Asked Questions

How are we going to use the answers to the poll?

This poll is being run by a network of close to 30 partners for an initiative called POP (Protection through online Participation) led by the International Communications Union (ITU) and the Office of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children (sorry for the long names!). PoP has the goal of better understanding how children and young people use the Internet to be safer when they are at risk of experiencing harm. These results will be combined with more information so all these partners can make recommendations on how to improve and implement systems that support children through online means. You can read more about PoP, including who the partner organizations are here: https://violenceagainstchildren.un.org/content/pop

Who is collecting the data and who will have access to the data?

PoP is being led by UN agencies, in collaboration with the private sector, child helplines, academia, and civil society organizations. The leading agencies for this initiative are the office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Violence Against Children and the International Telecommunications Union. All data is being collected and stored by the two leading agencies. Results will be analyzed and evidence will be shared in aggregated form and  anonymized manner with partners of the initiative. Further information about PoP can be found in ITU’s and OSRSGVAC’s websites.

Who are PoP’s partners?

PoP Partners: Child Helpline International, Child Online Africa , Crisis Textline, Edaw Aecom, Emirates Digital Association for Women, Eurochild, IE University, Global Kids Online, LEGO Group, Meta, Microsoft, Mtoto News, New York University Abu Dhabi, Parent zone, Roblox, Save the Children, SWGfl, Tech Matters, ThroughLine Care, UK Safer Internet Centre, UNICEF, UN Youth Office, WeProtect Global Alliance, Young & Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University, Walt Disney Company.

In what kind of position do I reply to this survey, and do I need to identify myself when answering this form?

You can reply to this poll in representation of your organization, or in an individual manner. You are welcome to disclose on behalf of which company you are writing from, but if you wish to remain anonymous you may do so.

How are we keeping the information from the poll safe?

When we gather the information, it will only be accessible to people working directly on the poll. Once all the results are double-checked and published, we won’t need the information from the poll anymore. We will then delete the data from individual poll responses permanently.”