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Disrupting harm

Disrupting harm

The Disrupting Harm project was established to generate high-quality evidence on technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse of children. It is a 14-country research project conducted in partnership with ECPAT International and INTERPOL, funded by the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children. Together, we will develop a new research methodology to study  when and how digital technology might facilitate sexual abuse and exploitation of children, both online and offline. The purpose is to identify priority areas for interventions by governments and other organizations working to protect children from these crimes.

The project will assess the nature of this problem in 14 countries across Eastern and Southern Africa and Southeast Asia, using multiple data sources to triangulate evidence. UNICEF Office of Research - -Innocenti will conduct nationally representative household surveys to collect data from 1,000 children and 1,000 caretakers per country. We hope that by speaking to children directly, we can better understand their experiences of online violence within the larger context of their general internet use.

Publications

Disrupting Harm in Thailand: Evidence on online child sexual exploitation and abuse
Publication

Disrupting Harm in Thailand: Evidence on online child sexual exploitation and abuse

Funded by the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children, through its Safe Online initiative, ECPAT, INTERPOL, and UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti worked in partnership to design and implement Disrupting Harm – a research project on online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA). This unique partnership brings a multidisciplinary approach to a complex issue in order to see all sides of the problem. OCSEA refers to situations that involve digital or communication technologies at some point during the continuum of abuse or exploitation; it can occur fully online or through a mix of online and in-person interactions between offenders and children. The Disrupting Harm research was conducted in six Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, and seven Eastern and Southern African countries. Data were synthesised from nine different research activities to generate each national report which tells the story of the threat, and presents clear recommendations for action.
A Global Agenda for Children's Rights in the Digital Age: Recommendations for developing UNICEF's research strategy
Publication

A Global Agenda for Children's Rights in the Digital Age: Recommendations for developing UNICEF's research strategy

For some years, UNICEF has been researching children’s online risk and safety, promoting digital citizenship, and conducting both programmes for awareness-raising among children and for communication for development through the use of ICT. A revised version of this report was published in the Journal of Children and Media