At an international gathering in Geneva, former President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, urged that children should be empowered with the digital resilience to cope with the global scourge of online abuse.

Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, who heads the Malta Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society, said that as children were living an increasingly virtual life it became more pressing for all stakeholders, including service providers, to create a safe and secure space for children in particular.

She stated that, “providing a safe digital space for our children is a responsibility that should be carried by one and all; we should be aware and proactive of the rapid developments in the field… without projecting the web as our enemy.”

Addressing a working group on child online protection organised by the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (UN ITU) to share best practices, Ms Coleiro Preca highlighted the online mines children stepped on while navigating their lives online.

She recalled the frank remarks of a 10-year-old boy during the Child Wellbeing Conference on Bullying, organised by the MFWS recently, who said, “today, no place is safe, you are bullied at school and when you go home, where you expect to find peace, you are bullied online. Bullying is everywhere.”

She praised the ITU for delivering an invaluable set of guidelines in 2020, but pointed out that technology was changing rapidly and it was essential to continuously keep abreast and assess, in real time, the impact of new technological and digital developments on children.

She pointed out that an example of this were rapid developments in the field of AI, which although were fast becoming a part of children’s lives, on the ground there remained a lack of awareness, and information as to what impact this would have on children.

Ms Coleiro Preca also shared the findings from the recent survey it had commissioned among 387 children in Years 3 to 11 across Malta’s schools, as part of its Promote Online Protection Project — P.O.P-Up.

One phase of this project was delivering The Train the Trainers programme, provided by ITU, to Maltese psychosocial professionals working in our schools.

“To date, 80 psychosocial professionals have been certified by ITU as official trainers and we are now in a position to plan a nationwide training programme… Next year, the MFWS, in collaboration with the ITU, is also aiming to extend The Train the Trainers programme to other entities, including NGOs,” she added.

On the margins of the working group conference in Geneva, the Malta Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society and the ITU signed a joint declaration highlighting the ongoing collaboration between the two organisations.

She called on respective governments and authorities and all other stakeholders to put children and their wellbeing at the heart of their policies.

Ms Coleiro Preca concluded by saying that, “the work we do with children is an investment in future generations. It is essential that child participation be at the core of the development and implementation of our work within our societies. I urge everyone to work with children rather than for children.”

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