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| A little girl busy with a laptop (montage) |
The Albanian National Hotline for Internet Safety (Isigurt.al) has highlighted that sexual violence or online bullying is on the rise. The victims are mostly children, while the denunciations do not get a solution, because the laws do not exist.
The Internet is becoming increasingly unsafe for children and teenagers. 150 complaints of online sexual violence, bullying and incitement of hate speech have been addressed on the i segurt.al platform throughout 2022.
"We have an increase in bullying, hate speech, and undoubtedly online sexual violence against children and teenagers," said Altin Hazizaj, director of the Center for Children's Rights in Albania (CRCA).
Anyone can fall prey to online bullying, but children are the most vulnerable group.
"60-70% of cases are children and generally girls. TikTok was the first, followed by Instagram, which is the second, and Facebook continues," said Hazizaj for Euronews Albania.
And while these phenomena happen almost every day, the perpetrators are not punished, since the law does not exist.
"A child, a teenager who faces mass ridicule does not have the right to go knock on the police and ask for protection. An unknown person who sends photos of the child's genitals or asks for intimate photos of the child and then uses them to pressure him to have sex online without even meeting the child, has no place to complain because today the criminal code continues to consider sexual violence only violence with penetration of the child", emphasized Hazizaj.
In the inability to protect them while they are online, educating children remains the key to success.