End Online Violence against Children: Learnings from Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka became a pathfinding country of the Partnership to End Violence against Children in 2018 and thereby Sri Lanka made a pledge to develop and implement a new strategy in line with the SDG 2030 Agenda, to contribute to a world where all children grow up free from violence and exploitation.
In line with the government objective and its global commitment, the consortium to End Online Violence against Children led by Save the Children International Sri Lanka country office, World Vision and LEADS received a global fund to strengthen the national mechanisms to prevent and to respond to online violence against children and to support victimized children of online violence. This is the first attempt to have a national scale project to address online violence against children spanning over academia, victim protection, prosecution, educational and technological spheres in Sri Lanka. All the project activities are pilot interventions tested out for the first time in the country which is unique due to creativity and innovations embedded to tackle online violence against children. The flow of activities include:
- Conducting a national research on the incidence, nature and scope of online violence against children, and the mechanism that respond to cases of online violence against children
- Launching an online course for children about cyber safety
- Establishing and strengthening a Cybercrime Investigation Unit at the National Child Protection Authority
- Developing a mobile application to report cases related to online violence against children
- Developing a multi-country, child-led “Web fighter” study guide to increase awareness among children
- Developing a fully costed national response mechanism to respond violence against children
- Capacity Building Programme for Child Care Service Providers
EOVAC Sri Lanka project is coming to a close on 5th of March 2021, yielding many positive outcomes and learnings for local and global counterparts of similar interest. Before its closure, Save the Children Country office in Sri Lanka with World Vision Lanka and LEADS together with the Global Partnership to End Violence wish to share the learnings of the project locally and internationally during the event EOVAC Learnings from Sri Lanka.