On 30th January, 2018, from 11:00 to 12:30 in the Info Centre of the Delegation of European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a public promotion of the application and awarding ceremony „Be a Cyber-detective!“. The application is one of the activities that are realised within the project „Development of Child Friendly Guidelines for Prevention of Violence Against Children in Bosnia and Herzegovina“, a project funded by the European Union and implemented by the association International Forum of Solidarity – EMMAUS, with the support of UNICEF.
Besides children and youth, representatives of respective institutions of international organisations, and civil society from Bosnia and Herzegovina have also attended the aforementioned event, as well as experts in relevant fields. Representatives of the Delegation of European Union in BiH, UNICEF, IFS – EMMAUS and the experts engaged in development of application have addressed the present audience.
Children nowadays spend most of their time in virtual world, where they often come face-to-face with diverse inappropriate contents, without any kind of protection. Although there are no confirmed statistical data for territory of our country which could point to the exact number of cases of abuse or disturbance via Internet, through the SOS hotline within web page www.sigurnodijete.ba IFS – EMMAUS has had over 700 reports of different types of inappropriate content of abuse and exploitation of children, including reports regarding the child sexual abuse material in the digital environment.
With the aim of strengthening prevention of violence against children activities, and encouraging the children and youth, parents and professionals and wider public to contribute to the identifying and reporting of cases of violence against children, IFS – EMMAUS has realised an online educational quiz „Be a Cyber-detective!“, which was played by 850 children, age 12-18, during 6 weeks. In accordance with great results of online quiz and the interest of children in the topic, a web application „Be a Cyber-detective!“ has been created.
Application is intended to be used in schools across the country, for education of children, but parents, teaching staff and other professionals as well, on different types of violence against children and ways of prevention and reporting. It is created in the form of an online quiz, which consists of 2 segments which can be used for primary knowledge testing, and one for after realised education for checking the gained knowledges; online – through social networks, but as well as offline – for realisation and use during regular school classes and/or home computers.
A need for preventive reacting and intensified education and awareness raising amongst children and youth on various types of violence has been especially emphasized. Publicising, public promotion and distribution of the promoted contents to the wider public and professional community, are a significant contribution to the strengthening the already established system of child protection in BiH, with the aim of adequate answering to all known types of violence, exploitation and neglect of children.