Telekom Romania and Asociația Telefonul Copilului draw attention to the online dangers to which children are exposed

Telekom Romania, together with Asociația Telefonul Copilului, the company’s long-term partner in protecting children in Romania from being abused, continues its national awareness and prevention program for online dangers.

With financial and logistical support from Telekom Romania, Asociația Telefonul Copilului provides children with three free tools through which they can request support if they are victims of abuse, regardless of the form it takes: the first mobile application that offers access to counselling services for teenagers and youngsters, directly from the mobile phone, Happygraff, the online educational and counselling platform www.116111.ro and the European helpline for children 116 111.

Thus, Asociația Telefonul Copilului registered in the first six months of the year a number of 2,445 cases of abuse reported to the number 116 111 or through the Happygraff application, with 15.1% more complaints compared to 2019. Among the forms of reported abuse are: denigrating messages, intimidation through the spread of rumours, false information and gossip, blackmail regarding the use of images with victims in inappropriate situations or the distribution of online pages with inappropriate content to minors.

The number of cases reported to Asociația Telefonul Copilului is probably only a small part of the total aggressions to which minors are subjected, given that 95% of children have tried to solve their cyberbullying problems alone. Only when the abuse escalated did they turn to the counselling offered by Asociația Telefonul Copilului.

With a fairly high prevalence in recent years, the category of cyberbullying abuse also includes the phenomenon of sexual predators on social networks, which usually act on fake accounts to attract their victims through specific means. Cătălina Surcel, Executive Director, Asociația Telefonul Copilului, offers some details that can lead to the identification of a predator on social networks: “excessive kindness to a child from an adult who does not know him, friendly behaviour, even insistent in solving a child’s problems, suspicious availability for long conversations, requests of personal data in the end.”

The most exposed to this type of abuse are children in their teens, who have access to technology, who begin to participate in longer walks with friends and colleagues, but who do not have the maturity to understand inappropriate behaviours. When faced with cyberbullying or exposed to unpleasant situations, only 5% talk to their parents, according to data recorded by Asociația Telefonul Copilului:

“It is our responsibility to contribute to a safer online environment for children, to inform them about the risks they face when accessing the internet, to provide them with tools through which they can request specialized support in case they are victims of abuse, but most importantly to encourage them to talk about the traumatic situations they are going through. This period is all the more difficult, as children are exposed to online content for a long time, and the danger does not avoid them. The cases managed by Asociația Telefonul Copilului prove it. On the other hand, we want to be the partner of the parents, to offer them the technology they need to ensure their children a safe interaction with the online environment”, said Ruxandra Vodă, Corporate Communications Director, Telekom Romania.

Parents concerned about children’s walking routes, but also about the online content they access, can install on their phones the Kaspersky Safe Kids Premium app, available at Telekom Romania. In this regard, the company is preparing new special offers this fall.