LEAGUE - SYNYO GmbH

LEAGUE: Issues on online sexual exploitation are addressed with educational approaches

leo — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 08:33:42 +0000

LEAGUE

LEAGUE: Issues on online sexual exploitation are addressed with educational approaches

During the last few months, the LEAGUE project has mainly been about the organisation and management of the national as well as international trainings. One of the main goals is to give predefined target groups an insight into the issue of sexual exploitation on the internet, in order to inform them about possibilities of case reporting, prevention measures and opportunities to raise awareness in the public space. These activities aim to fulfil the educational objectives of the project.

On February 16, 2023, the very first LEAGUE International Training took place in Vienna. 28 participants from 12 different European countries and various academic and professional backgrounds, such as lawyers, psychologists, social workers, and government representatives participated in the workshop, which was organized by the consortium partners from SYNYO. The topic of the workshop addressed the problematic issue of online child sexual abuse, its identification and prevention.

To achieve the best possible training outcomes and to create value for the participants, they were separated into small groups of five to six people. The group distribution depended on the participants’ nationalities and professions to keep the groups multidisciplinary and diverse. This ensured an intercultural and cross-professional exchange of information and knowledge and particularly showed how online child sexual abuse is addressed differently in each of the represented countries and within different institutional and professional structures. The discussions were guided by members of the consortium, while the key findings were presented by the participants themselves. Topics, such as 1) victim identification and risk factors, 2) the communication of digital consent and 3) practices to promote survivor centred responses were addressed.

Both the organisation of the training and the discussions as well as listening to the different opinions of the participants were of great value to the whole LEAGUE team. We are currently reflecting on the results and our observations during the event as these provide meaningful input for our upcoming national trainings. For us, it was important to gain understanding of the knowledge level of our participants for the upcoming work in the project. This also shows us the impact the training had, and it encourages us in our role as a project consortium to continue this path and strengthen our project activities in the fight against child sexual abuse on the Internet.

The second LEAGUE International Trainings is already in the starting blocks and will take place on September 26, 2023, in Vienna. This time, among other things, an attempt will be made to recruit more policymakers in the field of child and data protection in order to achieve an even higher degree of differentiation in terms of content.

As briefly mentioned in the previous paragraph, four national trainings are also organised by each consortium member. However, these involve a slightly different target group, namely teachers, school psychologists and/or parents. With the help of the training material created in the project, the problem of sexual exploitation on the internet will be discussed with these groups. SYNYO’s approach is to cooperate with NGOs and schools that have a high level of expertise in this field and could support the organisation of the training (recruitment of participants, promotion of the training, content support, provision of venues). These steps are taken to ensure the success of these upcoming events.

Links

https://project-league.eu/

Social Media

Facebook: League
LinkedIn: LEAGUE Project
Twitter: league_project1
Instagram: league_project

Keywords

Boys, online safety, online child sexual abuse, prevention, reporting, education, technology, awareness raising activities.

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The LEAGUE Project made remarkable progress in recent months and is ready to announce its first international training.

SYNYO — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 08:54:12 +0000

LEAGUE

The LEAGUE Project made remarkable progress in recent months and is ready to announce its first international training.

The LEAGUE Project made remarkable progress in recent months and is ready to announce its first international training.

Since its launch in February 2022, much has been achieved within the LEAGUE project. Additionally, the project is proud to announce its first international training, which will take place in Vienna on February 16, 2023.

Over the last 10 months, the LEAGUE consortium has put a lot of work and effort into the project. Here are some of our main achievements in creating safe online environments for children:

The establishment of the LEAGUE internet platform: Our technical partners from CERTH have succeeded in designing a user-friendly internet platform. The content and functions of the platform are based on empirical data collected by the LEAGUE consortium. The aim was to make the platform accessible as well as to adapt support services and content to the target groups’ needs. The platform is accessible via: https://project-league.eu/
Social Media Glossary: we created a glossary about key terms in relation to OSCA (Online Sexual Child Abuse). The aim is to educate, inform and get the attention of our target groups via Social Media outputs. The glossary contains definitions of certain words and abbreviations that are used in connection with the sexual (online) abuse of children. Glossary entries are posted on our social media channels at regular intervals (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram). And speaking of social media: the launch of LEAGUE channels on YouTube and Twitch is already in planning.
Material for our trainings: CESIE has developed the educational training materials for the upcoming LEAGUE trainings. We are already very excited about the reactions of the participants and cannot wait to distribute them among them.

The biggest news is still pending: Save the date, because on February 16, 2023 our first international training in Vienna will take place. The LEAGUE consortium expects a lively exchange between practitioners working with children and/or in the field of preventing (online) sexual abuse. Invitations and further information on the international training will be published shortly on our website and social media channels. We cannot wait to see you in Vienna and are very excited to hear your views on this topic. If you are interested, please get in touch: vanessa.moser@synyo.com

Download the press release as PDF here

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Links

Web: project-league.eu

Mail: office@netlaw.bg

Twitter: @league_project1

Facebook: @league

LinkedIn: @LEAGUE Project

Instagram: @League_project

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LEAGUE: Further progress after the project’s summer break in August

leo — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 07:23:32 +0000

LEAGUE

LEAGUE: Further progress after the project’s summer break in August

The next major steps in the LEAGUE project are the organisation of international and national trainings as well as the further development of technical tools, such as the chatbot and the Internet platform. In order to achieve these short-term goals, significant measures have been taken that can be seen as the result of increased cooperation between all project partners.

This section provides a precise overview of the most recent project activities. These include:

Dissemination and evaluation of questionnaires: For the improvement of the project’s technical tools and their adaption to the needs of the respective target groups, questionnaires have been handed out to boys between 10 and 18 years old. These actions were taken in all countries, where the project partners operate, meaning that SYNYO was also involved.
External evaluator: The LEAGUE consortium is supported by an external evaluator, who reviews the project performance and progress regularly. In July, shortly before the project’s summer break, all partners had to compose a summary of their results and achievements obtained within the first six months. In the monthly consortium meeting, which took place again in September, the feedback of the evaluator was overall positive.
Glossary: For the dissemination and social media activities, a LEAGUE glossary has been designed by one of the project partners. After the review and consent of all project partners, the glossary was sent to SYNYO, which is in charge of the project’s dissemination and exploitation campaigns. The glossary itself includes terms, which have an explanatory function and should bring the topic closer to the followers of LEAGUE’s social media channels. The glossary is designed for every target group.
Training material: For the organisation and conduction of the national and international training, adequate material is needed. This task was taken over by the responsible partner and disseminated to all consortium members for reviewing and commenting on it. The final comments that were incorporated will be redirected to SYNYO, for the further design of the layout and the insertion of relevant graphs.
National/international training: An approximate date was fixed for the first international training, which will be organised in Vienna and hosted by SYNYO. The next months will be dedicated to the distribution of information about the training over the project’s social media channels, the collection of relevant participants from various organisations in the whole of Europe and organisational tasks. Therefore, strengthened cooperation between all partners is a necessity. The national training, on the other hand, will be organised by every partner individually.

Links

https://project-league.eu/

Keywords

Boys, online safety, online child sexual abuse, prevention, reporting, education, technology, awareness-raising activities

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Launching LEAGUE, a project addressing the further need of preventing and increasing the reporting of online child sexual abuse of boys aged 10-18

SYNYO — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 14:24:06 +0000

LEAGUE

Launching LEAGUE, a project addressing the further need of preventing and increasing the reporting of online child sexual abuse of boys aged 10-18

During the pandemic the number of the reported cases of sexually exploited and/ or abused children has significantly increased. Hence, the aim of the LEAGUE project is to address these issues by raising the awareness and by elaborating tools to effectively face the novel concerns.

On the 23rd of February 2022 was held the kick-off meeting of the LEAGUE project, which is funded by the CERV programme of the European Commission and coordinated by Law and Internet Foundation (LIF). The
specific target group of LEAGUE are boys aged 10-18 as well as their parents, educators and other relevant professionals The aim of the two-year project is to prevent online child sexual abuse of boys, to strengthen
the capacity of the professionals and to increase attention as well as online safety. The LEAGUE consortium consists of five organisations from five different EU countries, namely: Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, and
Slovenia.

During the course of the project the consortium will develop:

a series of national and international trainings targeting professionals as well as parents and educators with the aim of educating them on the issue and introducing them to the state-of-the-art knowledge.
an online Platform and Chatbot offering peer-to-peer support for boys aged between 10 and 18 years.

The relevance of the project originates from the COVID-19 pandemic and the related increase in the use of the internet by children and young people worldwide. According to studies and reports from international
organisations like INTERPOL, ECPAT International and UNICEF, there has not only been a rise in the usage of the internet (and all associated online networks such as social media channels, gaming portals and streaming
services) but also a significant increase in the reported cases of Online Child Sexual Abuse (OCSA), since technological advancements have made it easier for perpetrators to contact children.
Another important aspect of the project refers to the selection of the main target group, namely boys between 10 and 18 years old. Although often overseen, 30.5 % of the children, who are victims of OCSA are boys.
Moreover, the materials in which boys are included show in many cases more violence and more severe scenes than material including girls. Besides, boys are more unwilling to open up to a person of trust or to
report such incidents in general. This means that the actual number of OCSA cases might be much higher. To raise awareness regarding this issue and to address the importance of prevention measures and reporting,
the LEAGUE project follows two different activity streams. The first stream includes the organization of two international trainings in Vienna, which are thematically addressing professional groups like social
workers, carers or law enforcement representatives. Furthermore, every consortium partner has to conduct four national trainings, especially reaching out to teachers, school psychologists and parents. The second
stream incorporates the creation of a child-friendly internet platform and a chatbot, where boys can seek for information regarding OCSA and their rights. These activities are rounded off by an intensive dissemination
and exploitation strategy.

Download the full press release here

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Links

Web: project-league.eu

Mail: office@netlaw.bg

Twitter: @league_project1

Facebook: @league

LinkedIn: @LEAGUE Project

Instagram: @League_project

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LEAGUE: Project on preventive measures and reporting on online child sexual abuse launched

leo — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 08:20:22 +0000

LEAGUE

LEAGUE: Project on preventive measures and reporting on online child sexual abuse launched

LEAGUE addresses the strong increase of produced or disseminated online child sexual abuse material worldwide especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project focuses on awareness-raising and education activities, which should help to give this topic societal relevance. Trainings as well as the development of an internet platform are planned not only to educate professionals and parents on this issue but also to provide assistance to boys regarding online child sexual abuse.

The project “LEAGUE: Limiting online sexual Exploitation and Abuse Gender based on Underaged boys by Educating experts” is funded by the European Union under the CERV2021-DAPHNE call (“Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme”) and aims at addressing prevention referring to online child sexual abuse as well as promoting the reporting of assaults that have already occurred by encouraging boys to talk to and share their experiences with a person of trust.

The relevance of the project has its origin in the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the fact that daily life has been more and more transferred into an online setting, crimes are also taking place more and more virtually. According to reports published by international organisations such as UNICEF, INTERPOL and ECPAT International, 30,5 % of victims of online child sexual abuse are boys. However, this is not the only reason why the project sets an emphasis on this group. Other reasons are based on gender-specific disparities, regarding the online services children use (e.g., gaming portals, streaming services, social media channels) or the hours they spend using them. Boys are not only spending more time on the internet (especially gaming portals), but they are also more likely to use chat functions, where they are able to communicate with others. Moreover, the content of online child abuse material where boys are involved, is in most cases more severe and shows more violent actions towards them.

The project has a duration of 24 months and includes the implementation of two major streams. As the name of the project already suggests, a strong educational direction will be followed in particular through the organisation of trainings. Two international and in total 20 national trainings are planned to be conducted. Both international trainings will be held in Vienna and should especially encourage professionals in the field of law enforcement, care and social work to participate. The national trainings will be organised in every partner’s country and are aligned to address school personnel such as teachers and psychologists as well as parents. This is intended to create more sensitivity towards the topic and to give people a position of trust towards the right tools to react appropriately. The second stream includes the creation of an internet platform and a chatbot, providing information regarding psychological assistance, helplines or relevant authorities, in case of an incident regarding online sexual abuse.

Summing up, the project aims to:

EDUCATION: Improving the knowledge and strengthening the capacity of professionals as well as training teachers, school psychologists and parents on this topic.
PREVENTION: Sensitisation regarding and the development of preventive measures, to protect boys from sexual abusive actions.
AWARENESS: Drawing more attention to the issue of online child sexual abuse and improve the safety of boys (and children in general) online.
DEVELOPMENT: Developing an internet platform and a chatbot to assist boys in case of online sexual abuse.

The project consortium consists of five research institutions and non-governmental organisations, with proper expertise regarding the topic. The project coordination is adopted by the Bulgarian NGO Law and Internet Foundation. The remaining tasks are distributed among the project partners, as there are Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas (Greece), CESIE (Italy), Institut Pravnih Znanosti, Raziskave in Razvoj na Podrocju Prava (Slovenia) and SYNYO.

Furthermore, an external evaluator is included, who ensures an independent evaluation of the project’s progress and results. It is parted into five WPs, where SYNYO is entrusted with the implementation and exploitation strategy, which means not only bringing the project’s purpose to the general public but also encouraging partners, stakeholders and target groups to use the implemented tools, also after the project lifetime.

Links

https://project-league.eu/

Keywords

Boys, online safety, online child sexual abuse, prevention, reporting, education, technology, awareness raising activities

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