Centre for Women's Research (CENWOR)

• Cyberviolence is the use of online systems to cause or facilitate violence against individuals that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering and may include the exploitation of the individual's circumstances, characteristics or vulnerabilities.
• Project aims to reduce online violence which may be on the increase as all students are depending on the use of Internet for the continuation of their studies. We propose to introduce approximately three-minute video clips uploaded to YouTube and a CD, explaining various aspects of cyberviolence, how to mitigate violence, where they can find help in the form of counselling and bring the perpetrators to book. The YouTube video clips could be accessed by anybody anywhere in the world. The CDs would be distributed freely among the schools in Sri Lanka. The video clips and CDs would be available in English and local languages.

https://sparc.cmb.ac.lk/wp-con...

Cyberharassment

• Defamation and other damage to reputation
• Cyberbullying etc.

ICT related violations of privacy

• Taking, sharing or manipulation of data
• Sextortion
• Stalking
• Doxing
• Identity theft etc.

Online sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children

• Sexual abuse
• Child prostitution
• Child pornography etc. 

ICT related hate crime

• Against groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, sex, disability

“The National Child Protection Authority’s (NCPA) child helpline, 1929, has seen an increase of 30% in complaints involving cruelty against children from the start of the country’s lockdown, making it highly probable that instances of online violence have increased as well.”

https://srilanka.savethechildr...  

“Types of violence reported:

• Clicking on a link in a messages that showed indecent images of other people - 22.9%  
• Receiving indecent text messages - 28.0%  
• Receiving links and advertisements to indecent pictures/clip arts/videos/texts/ scripts/audio clips - 26.3%  
• Sharing links and advertisements to indecent pictures/clip arts/videos/ texts/scripts/audio clips -24.3%  
• Cyber Bullying - 20.7%  
• Cyber Extortion - 20.7%  
• Children have experienced online violence most while using Facebook (Boys – Nearly 74% / Girls – Nearly 58%), Instagram (Boys – Nearly 41% / Girls – Nearly 52%) and Twitter platforms (Boys – 25%/ Girls – Nearly 41%).”

https://sparc.cmb.ac.lk/wp-con...  

The project intends to produce video clips of approximate three minutes duration which would have brief descriptions in simple language and graphical illustrations of instances of cyber violence. These would be uploaded to YouTube.

Video clips will show what possible actions could be taken to mitigate such action.

Contact details of Organisations that could help (NCPA, SLCERT, Women’s  and Children’s Desks of 400 police stations, CSOs that provide counselling services such as WIN) would be included.

In addition to above video clips, a CD and coloured brochure would be produced with all the above information. These could be freely distributed among all stakeholders.

Those who have limited access to on-line material due to lack of devices, bad signal strength, who cannot afford to go online for long durations will benefit from the printed material. This would benefit parents too.

All material would be provided in English and the two local languages Sinhala and Tamil.

Provide awareness about cyberviolence to school children, teachers and parents through either online webinars or face to face programmes (pandemic situation permitting).

Parents of children in disadvantaged communities will be able to find out that their children are being subjected to on-line violence.

The solution is expected to help students understand that on-line access and participation has both positive and negative consequences. They need to be enabled to identify when they should report violence or cyberbullying to parents or teachers to obtain support to negate such action and eventually mitigate on-line violence thereby ensuring the physical safety and mental health of learners.

Students of Government Schools by Grade Cycle of Study -2019

Primary Cycle Grade 1-5                                - 1,656,441

Junior Secondary Cycle Grade 6-9                  - 1,359,061

Senior Secondary Cycle Grade 10-11 (O/Ls)    -    627,477

Collegiate Cycle Grade 12-13 (A/Ls)              -    411,161

Special Education Unit                                  -       7,513

Total                                                            - 4,061,653

Source: http://www.statistics.gov.lk/R...  

All the children in government schools – 4,061,653 in 2019, and other interested parties would have free access to all the material developed through the project. 

Most of these children are not even aware that Cyber-harassment, ICT related violations of privacy,

Online sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children and ICT related hate crimes are violations against them.

“COVID19’s impact on Sri Lanka has been immense with particularly severe consequences for children. As the pandemic spread across the globe, many countries, Sri Lanka included, went into various forms of lockdown to contain the spread. Schools in the country closed on March, 13, 2020, and, with island-wide curfew declared on March, 20, 4.1 million children of school going age were, and still are, confined to their homes.

The lockdowns have resulted in an increase in the number of children active online. Those with access to the internet are not only using it to keep up with their studies as schools remain closed, but also to stay occupied as parents focus on their own work from home arrangements. As more children come online, the risk of falling victim to a plethora of online abuse and violence increases substantially.

“We were very busy before the lockdown, and even children were doing other activities like studies, going to school. But now they’re lonely and locked up in their houses and their parents are involved in their own work. So now children tend to use more social media with no one to guide them, therefore they are more exposed to online violence in this situation”. Shanthini*,

The National Child Protection Authority’s (NCPA) child helpline, 1929, has seen an increase of 30% in complaints involving cruelty against children from the start of the country’s lockdown, making it highly probable that instances of online violence have increased as well.

Interpol and child protection agencies worldwide have reported an increasing trend in child online sexual exploitation. WePROTECT Global Alliance warns that the current environment has exacerbated existing drivers of online child sexual exploitation, providing new opportunities for abusers as they migrate online. This is, however, just the tip of the iceberg as sexual abuse and exploitation is not the only danger that children face while online.

Children are vulnerable to cyber bullying, blackmail, and identity theft, to name a few, not only from adults but from their own peers.

 “When it comes to online violence many people stereotype it and focus mainly on cyber bullying but there’s actually a larger part to it. There’s phishing, identity theft, stealing personal information which leads to kidnapping, blackmailing and cyberbullying”. Ashan*, 17

Save the Children promotes online safety and encourages parents, adult, and children themselves to be aware of the risks associated with the internet. Methods such as using safety and privacy settings, supervision of internet use, and implementing blocks and filtering are among several measures parents can take to protect their children online. Parents may not however, have the time or the knowledge to supervise every moment of their child’s online activity. It is of paramount importance that children themselves have the information they need to protect themselves. It is also important to create an environment in which children feel comfortable talking to parents and care givers if they feel that something online is not quite right or makes them feel uncomfortable.

“People think that it’s online and they can be anonymous so they can get away with anything they want  without thinking about whether it will hurt the other person’s feelings or not. More often than not, people do get hurt. Anonymity is the main reason why people think they can do it”. Ayesha*.

https://srilanka.savethechildr...

Sri Lanka has since Independence, placed emphasis on providing greater access to education, retaining children in school until at least 14 years of age and improving the quality of education. More emphasis was placed on the education of children from low socio-economic backgrounds, and rural and plantation sectors. Innovative measures such as establishment of Central Schools, provision of school text-books, uniforms, school meals, subsidized transport, improvement of schools close to children’s residence, provision of qualified teachers to disadvantaged schools and introduction of 13 years of education were implemented by governments. The present pandemic however has posed insurmountable challenges to education.

Video clips of this nature have not been developed in Sri Lanka earlier. The student population especially the rural children will benefit from these as they will help to create awareness among them making them realise that cyberbullying etc. are unethical and therefore should not be encouraged. They will learn how to mitigate such actions and with the help of adults would be able to look for redress mechanisms.

Users will not have to incur any major expenditure for the use of the materials. Video clips can be viewed by anyone interested.

CDs will be given free of charge and anyone (school or adult) having access to a computer could use it for self-learning or to create awareness among others.

Printed material can be read by anyone who can read local languages.

The material would be helpful in safeguarding the physical and emotional wellbeing of children or adults subjected to any kind of cyber violence.

Currently this project has not been implemented and therefore does not have any beneficiaries. In 2019, the school statistics showed a student population of 4,061,653. The products of the project when developed will reach all these students, their teachers, parents and government authorities. We believe that with the help of the UCSC and funding from MIT, we should be able to complete 50% of the project in six months and the balance within the first year.

http://www.statistics.gov.lk/R...

The Department of Census and Statistics , Sri Lanka released its Report on progress pf SDGs in Sri Lanka in 2017. The report is too long to be cited here. However the data clearly indicates the need for immediate action to achieve SDGs in Sri Lanka.

http://www.statistics.gov.lk/s...

Goal 4.a By 2030, Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all.

The project will work towards improving safety conditions for online education for students.

At CENWOR , there will be the 1. Project lead 2. Project coordinator 3. Computer manager 4. Accountant

The UCSC have their own staff to develop the intended material. Visit website for more details: www.ucsc.cmb.ac.lk

The organization has wide acceptance within the country and close links with Faculties/Departments of Education and Computer Science and Media units in Sri Lankan universities that will be happy to cooperate and support us. Through previous research, we have developed a good network with local organizations such as Women’s Organizations throughout the country and Government departments.

Since this organization was established, we have had much collaboration among institutions with representatives from all ethnic and religious groups and both men and women.

We need approximately US$ 19,000 to run CENWOR for one year. This includes salaries to permanent staff, utilities such as water, electricity, communication costs, municipal rates and taxes to the government and social benefits to permanent staff. Though we are a not for profit organisation, as we are registered as a Guarantee Limited Company under the Registrar of Companies – 2009 we are under obligation to pay taxes.

Though CENWOR does not want to make a profit out of this, it is important to get the product to as many people as possible (children, teachers, parents and other service organisations). Therefore we would welcome any suggestions in that area.

We do have mechanisms through baseline and end line surveys to monitor the success of our projects. We use the Kobo tool kit for on line surveys during the pandemic situations. However that too needs more money and time. Financial constraints would prevent us from doing such surveys.

We have given a detailed description of the technologies which are going to be used by the UCSC authorities. As we are not developers of content, we are unable to judge whether the hardware and software suggested by UCSC are adequate. We hope that MIT on the other hand would be able to advise us on this matter.

We propose to collaborate with the Advanced Digital Media Center (ADMTC) of the UCSC for this project. They are well equipped with necessary hardware and software and possess an up to date digital studio for development of the needed video clips, CDs and printed material.

The Department of Communication and Media Technologies and Department of Information Systems Engineering of UCSC have sufficiently qualified personnel on Information Security, Graphics and Simulation, Mobile Computing etc. and will be able to advise the ADMTC on the content to be included in the video clips. https://ucsc.cmb.ac.lk

The Grassrooted Trust (Guarantee) Limited (http://www.grassrooted.net/education/) is another NGO that we would like to work with on this project. Their experience on “Being Sensible Online - To create awareness among parents about the current trend of exchanging nudes” and “Screens and Teens understanding and managing the physical, cognitive and behavioral impact of screen time among children” would give us invaluable input into determining the content of the video clips. They are a voluntary organisation and would be very happy to review the content.  

We would also wish to work with the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) which is very experienced in delivering education on a distance mode. Centre for educational technology & media (CETME) of the OUSL is quite capable of handling the content development. If we get funding from MIT for this project, we intend to get another quotation from OUSL too.  

CENWOR’s experience over the last so many years working with women’s and children’s issues and education in Sri Lanka and the connections we have established with the government sector, CSOs and other INGOs and NGOs will provide us with a good network to disseminate the product to the needy even under Covid-19 pandemic conditions when children’s safety is threatened.

CENWOR has successfully conducted projects for  ILO, UNDP, FAO, EU, UNWomen, UNDP and Save the Children Sri Lanka, The Asia Foundation, UNICEF, ICRW (India) and Buddhist Global Relief (BGR) to name a few of the INGOs.  

We are working with local NGOs such as Sri Lanka Centre for Development Facilitation (SLCDF),

World University Service of Canada (WUSC), Rajarata Praja Kendraya (RPK), Community Strength Development Foundation (CSDF), Sri Lanka College of Journalism (SLCJ) and Federation of Social Development Organisation (FOSDOO) to name a few of the recent collaborators. The collaborating organisations help CENWOR in field work and in implementation of projects

Our solution will provide safety to school children who are now engaged in on line education because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Most parents are incapable of providing the required supervision that is needed by children due to their lack of awareness of the threats around Internet. We intend to create that awareness and how to prevent such dangers from occurring.