IGF 2019 WS #354
Capacity building of children for improved mental health

Organizer 1: Jannat Fazal, Digital Rights Foundation
Organizer 2: Shmyla Khan, DRF
Organizer 3: Seerat Khan, Digital Rights Foundation

Speaker 1: Nighat Dad, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 2: Shmyla Khan, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 3: Smita Vanniyar, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

Moderator

Jannat Fazal, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

Online Moderator

Shmyla Khan, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

Rapporteur

Jannat Fazal, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

Format

Round Table - Circle - 90 Min

Policy Question(s)

How can children’s rights to participation, access to information, and freedom of speech be preserved and balanced with their right to be protected from violence, exploitation and sexual abuse in the online environment?
How can their resilience be increased by means of capacity building, media literacy, support and guidance in the digital environment?
What strategies are being used in other countries to protect children from online abuse and violence that can be duplicated in Pakistan?

SDGs

GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-Being

Description: Children and youth all over the world are more susceptible to online abuse, though it may range and vary in shape or form, the gist of it remains the same and along with the offline threat they are also trolled and bullied online. This brings with it a base level of resistance and isolation that only builds with the shift in the cultural landscape.
The session is aimed at discussing and highlighting the causes, reactions, and the toll on the mental and physical health of children and youth precipitated by online abuse. The session will discuss the idiosyncratic ways in which children deal with abuse and strategies that can be adopted to build their resilience. The sessions will also explore ways in which we can protect children and youth from falling prey to online bullying. Children and young adults face online bullying across the world but it's important to understand how they deal with it and how they can come together and deal with these problems and learn from each other to build resilience
It will be in the form of a round table discussion and attendees will share how they are working in their respective countries to combat this problem. Attendees will interact and learn from each other succeeded by a compilation of strategies that can be adopted to address this problem.


Expected Outcomes: List of strategies and ways to combat online abuse in a particular age group, that are already in practice in other countries.

This session will involve a 15-minute presentation with speakers presenting the issue and emerging risks of online child abuse and violence followed by a 75-minute discussion with attendees to list down strategies and ways to build the capacity of children to combat online violence and be more resilient

Relevance to Theme: The proposed session aims to chalk out ways to build capacity and resilience in children and youth to protect them from violence, exploitation and sexual abuse rampant in online spaces.


Relevance to Internet Governance: The session proposes to ensure that the needs of children and youth as consumers of the internet are respected and addressed in order to protect them from online abuse and violence.

Online Participation

Usage of IGF Tool