Its main goal is to raise awareness of this problem and increase the adults’ abilities to protect children by recognizing risks and using effective tools to punish criminals.
As part of the information campaign, Ternopil has recently hosted a screening and discussion of the documentary Caught in the Net by Czech filmmakers Barbora Chalupová and Vit Klusák. This screening was organized by the DOCU/CLUB Network of film clubs, which is part of the NGO Docudays.
The film Caught in the Net documented the experiment in which young adult actresses played the role of 12-year-old girls. The directors “put” them into carefully created copies of children's rooms, created fake social media accounts, and registered the girls in social networks. The actresses' task was to communicate with men who found them online. As it turned out during the filming, most of the men sent them photos of their genitalia without the girls’ consent, asked them to take nude photos or undress for the camera, and then tried to blackmail them.
Mariana Hevko, expert of the campaign “Sexual Violence on the Internet: How to Protect Children” and project manager of the DOCU/CLUB Network, explains: “We have been looking for a film that discusses this issue for a long time. Conveying information via documentary films is a distinct feature of our film clubs' activities. After all, documentaries make the problem more relevant and understandable for the audience, helping to connect with it emotionally. Discussing the film with the audience and experts helps find ways to overcome the issue. As for the film Caught in the Net, viewers can see for themselves the ways children are being manipulated, how their communication with adults on the Internet unfolds, how children react, why they enter into this contact in the first place, and what consequences all of this can cause.”
Anatoliy Pasichnyk, senior official of the Cybercrime Department in Ternopil region, mentioned during the discussion that the film accurately reveals the scheme by which children become dependent on criminals: “Cyber police are constantly working to identify pedophiles. Technically, this is a very difficult task. Criminals use technologies that make it difficult to identify them online. This is a global issue, so we are also looking for ways to solve it all over the world. We have tools to counter illegal content, provided by our colleagues from the Australian cyber police. But this work is still difficult. On average, we file three to four charges per year for the creation and distribution of illegal content and submit them to court with the prosecution. The actual number of such crimes is much higher.”
Discussion after the film
Anatoliy Pasichnyk noted that children fall into the criminals’ trap due to ignorance and misunderstanding of threats on the Internet: “The film convincingly shows how criminals blackmail children. I think that watching this film will help children realize that any personal data – addresses, check-ins at school, even photos of their own rooms – can be used against them and that adults' urges for caution are really justified.”
Oleksandra Myalkovska, Head of the Public Relations Department of the Patrol Police Department in Ternopil Oblast, spoke about the role of adults, especially parents, in protecting children from online sexual abuse: “There is not a single educational institution in Ternopil where my team and I do not conduct various activities, including those dedicated to sexual harassment and sexual abuse on the Internet. We communicate with children of all ages, from kindergartens to universities, and often leave them our phone numbers. In some cases, children report to us about blackmailing or threats on the Internet. Our interaction with parents is important in this regard. I want to emphasize that the adults’ willingness to protect their children is crucial. After all, a child cannot decide to bring a criminal to justice. Only parents can do this.”
Watching the film
Another participant of the meeting, Iryna Klak, sexologist and lecturer at the National Institute of Sexology and Sexual Health, emphasized the importance of sex education in families and educational institutions for prevention of sexual abuse of children on the Internet: “Children are very easy to manipulate. If they have no contact with their parents and no trustworthy adults around, a pedophile can become their confidant. Criminals know what to say to a child to gain their trust. Very quickly, children can start taking photos of themselves or making explicit videos. To teach children how to protect themselves, sex education must become part of the culture in the family and society. If a child doesn't know what sexting, sex grooming, and sextortion are, how can he or she protect themselves? We must learn to talk to children in age-appropriate ways to prevent such situations and inform them of the threats. Adults need to understand that such conversations do not encourage children to engage in sexual activity, but rather warn them and protect them from criminals.”
Oksana Hil, educator and director of the Alterra School, emphasized the vital role of educators in protecting children from threats on the Internet: “Educators work in the parent-child-school triangle. Ideally, a child's upbringing strategy should be built in such a way that he or she has a trusting relationship with parents, which is the most important thing, and has the same relationship with an adult at school. It doesn't necessarily have to be the child's class teacher. But I want my fellow educators to remember that each and every one of us can become that significant person whom children will tell that they are in trouble and ask for help.”
“I'm shocked by the film. I never thought that everything happens so quickly and easily for criminals.” “I have a teenage daughter, who is walking outside right now. I want to watch this film with her.” ”I was looking at the actresses and thinking that there are three teenage girls living in my building. For me, they are still so young! Can they really be harassed by grown-up men on the Internet? It's scary.” These are just some of the audience's responses after watching the film Caught in the Net.
Watching the film
However, the organizers of the screening are not trying to intimidate the audience. As Mariana Hevko noted, the NGO Docudays has launched an information campaign with the aim to share effective tools for countering and protecting children from sexual abuse on the Internet. “Our partners from the NGO Magnolia have launched the ‘StopCrime’ project, where anyone can anonymously report unacceptable content on the Internet involving children. After verification, these reports are filed to the cyber police to find and punish the perpetrators,” said Mariana. “The DOCU/CLUB Network has prepared recommendations for adults and children on how to counteract sexual abuse of children on the Internet, with useful links and contacts of organizations that can help victims.”
Mariana Hevko noted that, with this meeting in Ternopil, the DOCU/CLUB Network launched a series of screenings and discussions of the film Caught in the Net with the audience: “Our Network’s film clubs operate at the NGO Ternopil Women's Union, the NGO Ternopil Film Commission, and the NGO Center for Assistance to Children with Down Syndrome. We have two film clubs at educational institutions: at the secondary school №28 and at the Ternopil Pedagogical University. We also have a film club at the Chortkiv Central District Library. Information about all of them is available on our website. All screenings at the film clubs are free of charge. Moderators of all film clubs invite viewers to the screenings and are eager to hold screenings in educational institutions for students, teachers, and parents’ unions. It is important because only together we can protect our children.”
Currently, everyone can watch the film on the DOCUSPACE platform of the NGO Docudays. To do this, one simply has to register on the platform. The film is available for free viewing until the end of March.
The development of the DOCU/CLUB Network is funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine and Fondation de France.
The opinions, conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of respective governments or charitable organizations of these countries. The author(s) of this publication are solely responsible for its content.
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