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Unicef Releases Report on Child Online Protection in India

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Unicef Releases Report on Child Online Protection in India

Unicef Thursday released a report on ‘Child Online Protection in India’, which maps the existing laws on safeguarding children from online exploitation, flags the lacunae in them and puts forward recommendations to ensure cyber safety.

According to the report, the surge in mobile and Internet use in India has brought 400 million people online. It adds that according to a survey conducted by Internet and Mobile Association of India, schoolgoing children account for seven per cent of Internet users in the country.

As a result of “deep proliferation” of Internet, offline forms of crime and violence against children are finding new platforms in the online world, it says.

“India is leading in Internet Communications Technology (ICT). If you look at the annual growth of ICT in India, it is phenomenal. The question now is, how are we going to be able to tackle this exponential growth in ICT so that it can be conducive and works as an enabler of children’s education and empowerment and also, protects them from violence and abuse, which are on the increase in India and internationally.

“We need more regulations and we also need all the stakeholders and duty-bearers such as parents and teachers to contribute to this. There is also a need to engage with the private sector to invent some of the protections,” Unicef Representative to India Louis-Georges Arsenault told PTI.

Cyberbullying, cyberstalking, grooming, webcam sexual abuse, pornography are just some of the several forms of sexual abuse through Internet.

The Unicef report also talks about how the precise number of child victims of online sexual exploitation in India or across the world is “unknown” even as abusive content is on the rise.

“According to International Association of Internet Hotlines, the number of webpages containing child sexual abuse material, increased by 147 percent from 2012 to 2014, with children up to 10 years of age portrayed in 80 percent of them,” the report states.

“We, at National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), are committed to take on the issue of online child sex abuse seriously. The way our children are being targeted through the Internet is very serious and a lot of them innocently get involved in it.

“My hunch is that a lot of these children, who are victims of online abuse, could also become juvenile offenders themselves,” NCPCR Chairperson Stuti Kacker told the gathering.

Head of Programme, ECPAT International Marie-Laure Lemineur emphasised on the need for “leadership and political will” to address the issue. She pointed out that even those children without access to Internet or mobile phones can fall prey to online abuse if they come in contact with the offenders offline.

Lemineur also spoke about “tolerance” that certain societies have towards online abuse as there is no actual physical contact and therefore, there is a need to engage with the duty-bearers such as the parents.

The report concludes with recommending several steps that can be taken to protect the children from online abuse. These include improving the laws and policies, reporting and removing offensive material, probing and prosecuting offenders, data-gathering and spreading digital literacy.

[Source:- gadgets. ndtv]

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Education

Boko Haram Keeps A Million Children Out Of School: UNICEF

by onkar
written by onkar
Boko Haram Keeps A Million Children Out Of School: UNICEF

File Photo of the UNICEF logo.

LAGOS, NIGERIA:  The Boko Haram insurgency has kept more than one million children out of school, the UN children’s agency reported today, highlighting fears that a lack of education will fuel further radicalism in and around Nigeria.

Over 2,000 schools are closed across Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, while hundreds of others have been attacked, looted, or set on fire by Boko Haram jihadists in their quest to create an independent ISIS, said UNICEF.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has given his military commanders until the end of the month to end the Boko Haram insurgency, but even if victory is possible analysts say his government will have to contend with social turmoil stemming from a generation of children who have not gone to class.

“The longer they stay out of school, the greater the risks of being abused, abducted and recruited by armed groups,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF regional director of West and Central Africa.

Boko Haram fighters stormed a school in the remote northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok on April 14, 2014, seizing 276 girls who were preparing for end-of-year exams in an abduction that shocked the world.

Since starting to wage war on the Nigerian government in 2009, Boko Haram — whose name means “Western education is forbidden” — has targeted schools, students and teachers.

“It fulfils their initial mandate, which is to topple Nigeria’s secular government and the Western tenants which underpinned that governance structure,” said Ryan Cummings, security analyst at Red24, a risk consultancy firm.

Between bloody raids and incessant suicide bombings, Boko Haram has severely damaged what little infrastructure existed in Nigeria’s impoverished northeast at a time when the commodity dependant country is facing a cash crunch thanks to plunging oil prices.

‘Years To Fix’

In the northeastern state of Borno, militants destroyed $1 billion (914 million euros) of infrastructure, including hospitals, bridges, roads and homes, reported Governor Kashim Shettima in September.

The amount of “funds required for the rehabilitation, reconstruction and resettlement of our people is so enormous,” Shettima said.

Eradicating Boko Haram will not solve the education issue in the region, said Yan St-Pierre, terrorism analyst at Modern Security Consulting Group.

“There was already a problem with getting kids to school on a regular basis that simply became worse once Boko Haram emerged,” said St-Pierre, speaking from Berlin.

“In so-called liberated areas it’s been difficult to restore functioning infrastructure,” said St-Pierre, “that’s why we’re talking about a generational problem now, the structural problems, the financial problems, this is going to take years to fix.”

As the Nigerian military wins back territory in the country’s northeast, some schools have been able to reopen, according to UNICEF, yet many are overcrowded and lack the necessary supplies for children to learn.

Other areas are still too unsafe to resume class, with Boko Haram threatening in December to mount mass abductions of students, according to Nigerian officials.

[“source-ndtv”]
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Education

Conflict, widespread poverty stall progress on education rates over past decade – UNICEF

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

This 11-year-old girl lost her left leg in a suicide attack in an internal displaced persons (IDP) site in the Lake Chad Region. After three months in a hospital, she is trying to start over. UNICEF/Bahaji

6 September 2017 – Pervasive levels of poverty, protracted conflicts and complex humanitarian emergencies have led to stagnation in reducing the global out-of-school rate over the past decade, prompting the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to call for more investments.

With 11.5 per cent of school-age children – or 123 million missing school today, compared to 12.8 per cent – or 135 million – in 2007, the percentage of out-of-school 6-15 year olds has barely decreased in the last decade, according to UNICEF.

“Investments aimed at increasing the number of schools and teachers to match population growth are not enough,” said UNICEF Chief of Education Jo Bourne.

“This business-as-usual approach will not get the most vulnerable children into school – and help them reach their full potential – if they continue to be trapped in poverty, deprivation and insecurity,” she added.

Children living in the world’s poorest countries and in conflict zones are disproportionally affected. Of the 123 million children missing out on school, 40 per cent live in the least developed countries and 20 per cent live in conflict zones.

UNICEF points out that war continues to threaten – and reverse – education gains.

The conflicts in Iraq and Syria have resulted in an additional 3.4 million children missing out on education, bringing the number of out-of-school children across the Middle East and North Africa back to 2007’s level of approximately 16 million.

With their high levels of poverty, rapidly increasing populations and recurring emergencies, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia account for 75 per cent of the global out-of-school primary- and lower-secondary school age population.

“Governments and the global community must target their investments at eliminating the factors preventing these children from going to school in the first place, including by making schools safe and improving teaching and learning,” she continued.

However, some progress has been achieved.

Ethiopia and Niger, among the world’s poorest countries, have made the most enrolment rate progress in primary-school-age children with an increase of more than 15 per cent and around 19 per cent, respectively.

Emergency funding shortfalls for education affect access for children in conflict to attend school.

On average, less than 2.7 per cent of global humanitarian appeals are dedicated to education.

Six-months into 2017, UNICEF had only received 12 per cent of the funding required to provide education for children caught up in crises. More funds are urgently required to address the increasing number and complexity of crises and to give children the stability and opportunities they deserve.

“Learning provides relief for children affected by emergencies in the short-term, but is also a critical investment in the future development of societies in the long-term,” underscored Ms. Bourne.

“Yet investment in education does not respond to the realities of a volatile world. To address this, we must secure greater and more predictable funding for education in unpredictable emergencies,” she concluded.

[“Source-un”]

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