Today we launch our ‘Online Safety for Ukrainian Youth Survey Findings’ report, in collaboration with Teach For Ukraine.
Натисніть тут, щоб прочитати блог українською мовою
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there has been an increase in risk to children and young people of being groomed and recruited into exploitation via online channels.
At STOP THE TRAFFIK Group, we believe this requires urgent response and preventative action to keep children and young people safe from exploitation.
The increase in risk is caused by the rise in children attending class via virtual lessons whilst parents are at work. Children and young people are increasingly spending more time online, unsupervised, which is presenting more risks of online exploitation. Teach for Ukraine an organisation that engages young professionals to invest their skills to teach in Ukraine’s rural schools, also highlighted a lack of knowledge and resources about child safety online.
With support from Teach For Ukraine, we surveyed young people, teachers and parents from across Ukraine to gauge their knowledge of the subject and understand their awareness of the risks young people face online.
By undertsanding, what young people have experienced, the risks they face online and the level of understanding within the community, we can ensure that appropriate information and advice is shared, and identified knowledge gaps are addressed.
Some of the findings include:
87% of young people* have seen suspicious ads or messages online, with 11% saying they don’t know how to identify them. 46% would like to know more about how to stay safe online.
98% of teachers* felt it is necessary to introduce online safety lessons in Ukrainian schools.
78% of parents* said they do not feel confident that they know how to keep their children safe online.
*Survey respondents
Next steps
The results of the survey helped us identify key information that needs to be shared to keep children safe and enabled us to formulate the goals of our future Child Online Safety Prevention program across Ukraine.
This will include:
- The launch of geo-targeted social media campaign, sharing videos for children and young people with online safety information. This will include a website with information for young people about how to stay safe online and how to seek support.
- Support teachers with training and resources.
- Support parents with advice about how to keep children safe online and provide ‘conversation guides’ about how to discuss the matter with their children. We aim to launch a Facebook/Instagram campaign to reach parents and caregivers across Ukraine with the relevant information.
You can find the report here:
Online Safety for Ukrainian Youth survey findings report English language
Онлайн Безпека для Української молоді звіт про результати опитування Українська мова