As ChildFund Australia prepares to launch its internationally beta tested SwipeSafe program and App in Australia and other countries, a critical policy discussion will take place in Parliament House
Child rights advocates and Parliamentarians will gather in Parliament House on 2 July for a forum highlighting the practical and policy solutions required to keep children safe in digital environments, with a clear window of opportunity on the immediate horizon.
In the countries and communities in which ChildFund Australia works, the rapid digital transformation of children’s lives has presented acute risks for their protection and wellbeing. ChildFund responded with the creation of the Swipe Safe program and app which serves to immediately strengthens children’s knowledge, skills and behaviours to keep themselves safe online.
“We wanted to contribute to the solution by putting a solution back into the hands of children so they can be a participant in their own safety,” said ChildFund CEO, Margaret Sheehan. “Swipe Safe is a program that goes beyond just raising awareness, and builds their knowledge and critical thinking skills. This is now a globally scalable solution, as we have transformed the curriculum into a deeply interactive, innovative and participatory app.”
Global data presents a clear picture of the prevalence of child sexual abuse material, cyber bullying, online coercion, online sexual exploitation and abuse, addictive-by-design platforms and children’s data collection.
The volume of child sexual abuse material being reported has increased by 87 per cent since 2019, with new and evolving forms including AI-generated CSAM imagery. In South East Asia online child sexual abuse and exploitation is experience by as many as 20 per cent of children.
Swipe Safe has been beta tested in five separate phases, directly involving face-to-face training and app testing with tens of thousands of children in Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Fiji and the Solomon Islands. It has since been piloted in Australia and the Solomon Islands. Soon it will be launched into operation in Indonesia, the Philippines, Ecuador, Brazil, various countries in Africa, and in Australia.
“The digital safety of children requires an approach that doesn’t just keep them safe or protect them from the worst of harms, but one that also preserves their digital rights to play, to learn, to access information, and to connect,” Ms Sheehan said. “Digital environments are here to stay, and a solid part of an exciting future for children. But we can’t ask children to navigate unsafe systems – we need to ensure the digital technology and platforms are safe, which requires a collective effort and cooperation between governments, the tech industry and civil society, with children’s best interests as the driving force.”
With review of the Online Safety Act underway, a Children’s Privacy Code which could be adopted in legislation slated for August this year, Australia could be positioned to secure impressive change. But the bar has been raised internationally and Australia can do more to adopt international best practice. What are the emerging digital safety issues for children? What do the priority solutions look like? And what leadership can Australia show to create positive outcomes and impact for all children – In ChildFund’s case, in Australia and the Asia Pacific?
We are writing to urge you to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the siege on humanitarian aid that is preventing children and their families from accessing food, water and lifesaving medical supplies. Given the intensity of fighting and the degree of devastation on the ground, short pauses will not be adequate to ensure the flow of aid and humanitarian assistance required by affected civilians. Nor will it be adequate for an orderly release and transportation of civilian hostages.
Australia has been a strong advocate for an international rules-based order and for compliance with International Humanitarian Law. Nothing can ever justify the killing or maiming of children. As a group of experienced and trusted child rights’ organisations, we call for the Australian Government to:
- call for an immediate ceasefire, in line with growing international consensus
- continue to message that all parties to the conflict must observe their obligations under International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law
- call for the release of all hostages
- call for a safe pathway for the permanent entry for humanitarian aid into Gaza to meet humanitarian need including medical, food and clean water supplies
- call attention to the special protection owed to children in armed conflict
- as a signatory to the International Safe Schools Declaration condemn continued attacks and threats against schools, as well as children, teachers and other civilians talking shelter in schools (over 250 education facilities have been struck in Gaza since 7 October)
- call for recognition of the global Responsibility to Protect all civilians in Palestine and in particular, children.
A humanitarian catastrophe is worsening every day in Gaza – the United Nations has described Gaza as a ‘graveyard for thousands of children’. At the time of writing this letter, over 10,000 civilians, including 4,000 children have been killed in Gaza over the past four weeks, with more than one thousand children missing. Save the Children estimates that the number of children reported killed in Gaza since 7 October is more than the annual number of children killed across the world’s conflict zones since 2019. That means one child is being killed every 10 minutes – something we, and the Australian people, refuse to accept.
For those children who have survived, they are living in an increasingly desperate and deteriorating situation, without access to clean water, food or medicine. Although aid deliveries have resumed, it is a drop in the ocean and nowhere near enough. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees has reported that to date, 151 trucks have entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza1. According to the UN, at least 100 trucks a day are needed to supply desperately needed food, water, medicine, and fuel2. There are reports of injured children and pregnant women being operated on without anaesthetic.
The impact on the children of Gaza will endure long after the immediate crisis. The trauma of this war will leave them with lifelong and profound psycho-social and mental health impacts.
All children have the right to a life free from violence and fear. Every child’s life – Palestinian and Israeli – should be valued and treated with humanity.
We are urgently calling on you to demand an immediate ceasefire and a resumption of the required humanitarian aid. Any delay is unacceptable.
Sincerely,
Margaret Sheehan, CEO Childfund Australia
Susanne Legena, CEO Plan International Australia
Zahra Al-Hilaly, CEO Oaktree
Mat Tinkler, CEO Save the Children Australia
Link to the open letter: LR Minister Wong_ceasefire 9.11.23.pdf
