Organization ‘’Child Helpline International“ and Telenor Group help children stay safe online

A record number of almost 24 million children and young people around the world has contacted the helpline in 2016. In response to their growing need for support, Child Helpline International and Telenor Group have teamed up to build the necessary capacities among child guidance counselors and launched their first online child protection online course. From today, when the Safety Internet Day is celebrated, the module is available to specially trained counselors and volunteers to help children.

Training includes information on dealing with specific situations such as online violence, inadequate and illegal content, as well as online sexual abuse.

In all the countries in which it operates, Telenor is paying great attention to the protection of children in the online environment. After years of implementing the Surf Wisely Project and educating more than 20,000 children in Montenegro on the safe use of the Internet, Telenor continues to advocate for the improvement of this area. Thus, last year, Telenor and Unicef signed a three years cooperation agreement, thanks to which the study of digital skills for the safe Internet usage will become part of the elementary school curricula. The project was supported by the Ministry of Education, and the active participation of parents and teachers in the realization of project goals is also expected.

A survey conducted by Unicef showed that every other child in Montenegro does not feel safe on the Internet. Also, parents in Montenegro want the school to be the primary source of information about the Internet, and 20% of parents of children aged 9 to 17 years do not use the Internet at all.