Campaign against cyberbullying witnesses overwhelming participation of children

AMMAN — More than 1 million children shared and engaged with the national campaign “The new epidemic at the time of the pandemic” that was carried out by the National Council for Family Affairs (NCFA) and UNICEF Jordan to curb the effects of cyberbullying on children, according to a NCFA statement.  

The campaign witnessed widespread interaction across media and educational and popular social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.  This campaign is latest in a series of activations to end violence against children in Jordan, jointly launched by the NCFA and UNICEF Jordan in 2017 as part of the National Plan for ending violence against children, the statement said.

The need to launch this specialised campaign on cyberbullying came about with the aim of creating public awareness about the issue of cyberbullying and Internet safety, spreading knowledge on safe Internet usage as well as digital protection policies and encouraging appropriate action by caregivers and children due to the significant increase in Internet use during the coronavirus pandemic, where the results of a UNICEF study showed that 64 per cent of children in Jordan had been subjected to cyberbullying during the pandemic.  

This makes this issue an important topic of public debate that should be discussed especially within the digital communities and social media users in Jordan, read the statement.

The campaign engaged with 60 online activists and influencers on social media sites who in turn became partners of the campaign and assisted in spreading knowledge and awareness through their pages and accounts.  

The campaign succeeded in attracting children, where the percentage of young followers for the campaign was 57 per cent mostly from the capital, Amman.

The campaign against cyberbullying is one of the most important campaigns that addressed young people during the pandemic, where it was characterised by its creative posts that suited its target, the statement said

Young people were reached through their favourite platforms.  Specifically, children were targeted on Tiktok, which according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, the number of users increased by an additional 25 per cent during the pandemic. 

The campaign against cyberbullying has helped to highlight this phenomenon and the importance of preventing it by raising awareness at the national, institutional, academic and grass-roots level in order to demand the necessary interventions and policies to confront it, provide legal support and develop plans to provide psychosocial support to deal with victims of cyber bullying, according to the statement.

The campaign, which began at the end of last year, lasted for 60 days and was implemented on social media platforms of the NCFA and UNICEF Jordan, and used the Arabic hashtags “the cyberbullying epidemic” and “no to cyberbullying”.