In an effort to stop the proliferation of hazardous content pertaining to children’s safety online, Meta and Zindagi Trust are working together to launch the kid safety campaign.
A series of policy roundtables involving local CSOs and policy stakeholders working in the areas of both digital safety and child rights will be organised as part of the child safety campaign. The cooperating organisations will also continue their ongoing education campaign about the steps that individual social media users can take to prevent the spread of online material that glorifies child abuse or violence.
This week, the first of three roundtable discussions took place at a Karachi Zindagi Trust School. These roundtables are anticipated to offer an ideal setting for meaningful interaction between local organisations and Meta, as well as significant industry players and key government agencies like the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Ministry of Human Rights (MoHR), National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC), and others, to address the delicate issues relating to child safety in Pakistan.
The main goal of the kid safety campaign programme is to increase understanding of the risks associated with sharing such content and the significance of using the current channels and procedures for reporting harmful content on social media. The campaign includes instructional videos to inform social media users about the dangers of posting unsuitable content on social media, which might endanger young victims even more.
Founder and President – Zindagi Trust, Shehzad Roy said:
“Whenever I used to encounter disturbing content, my first instinct was to share it so it could help find the perpetrator. However, I have realised that the content can be distressing for many viewers, is illegal, and is a breach of privacy of the victims. We want to push for justice for victims and advocate for safer digital spaces instead of sensationalising traumatic events. Zindagi Trust takes pride in being a vocal advocate of policy level change for children’s safety and education. We rely on the support of government institutions and social media companies like Meta to help us achieve our goals.”
Sarim Aziz, Director Public Policy, South Asia-Meta said,
“We have a zero tolerance policy for content related to child exploitation and abuse. We use latest ground breaking technology to prevent, detect and remove content related to child abuse and violence. Since this is a highly sensitive matter, we take a comprehensive approach to keep our family of apps free of such malicious content and continue to collaborate with local authorities, rights bodies and relevant stakeholders to Report such content, and not share it, as sharing – even to raise awareness, further traumatises victims,by sharing evidence of their ordeal. Instead the content should be reported in app or through proper channels so that the government agencies can move against those responsible.”
Last year, Meta and Zindagi Trust started working together to promote child safety online. The agreement’s scope is being widened this year in order to scale up its national influence.
