U malom mestu, two 13-year-old girls took nude photos of themselves in slightly explicit poses and when they got into a fight, one of them posted it on social media to spite the other. The other girl refuses to go to school, doesn’t want to go outside, it’s a trauma, it’s a small place, everyone knows them, everyone has seen it and in those environments it’s a huge disgrace and shame. The girl even attempted suicide, taking some pills. In the end, everything was resolved. It took months of psychological support for the child to gain courage and return to a normal state. Just as the girl recovered, someone posted the pictures again on social media and the child went back to square one.
This is one example of internet violence, shared with us in the podcast „Novosti – Priče iz hronike“ that airs on our website every Friday at 8 PM, by Emina Beković from the National Contact Center for Child Internet Safety. Children and adults report such and similar cases of violence to the number „19833“.
According to Emina Beković, violence is mostly reported by children aged 11, 12, 13, and 14 and the most reported cases are peer violence and cyberbullying because it is much easier for children to hide behind fake profiles and insult, send inappropriate messages, and mock others. This can last 24 hours a day at any time on social media or Viber groups.
„In the seven years since we have existed, we have had over 41,000 calls, which include all contacts made to us via phone, email, and social media. From that, we create cases that are mostly advisory, as many seek only advice. There have been 7,600 such cases, and 500 cases have been referred to the police, prosecution, the Ministry of Education, which means they involve more serious crimes, peer violence, and cyberbullying,“ says Emina Beković.
She points out that digital violence leaves significant and severe consequences on adolescents, as they are in a period where there is a lot of shame and stigma. They don’t confide in their parents and try to break free on their own. Sometimes they don’t report it because they fear retaliation and revenge, and one of the reasons is also the fear of having their phone taken away or internet access banned. The common factor among all these child victims is that parents are the last ones to find out. When they have no other options and see no way out, when they endure and endure, they then call us and beg us not to tell their parents. That is the first sentence with every child. The reason is shame and stigma and they think they are to blame. Therefore, parents need to educate themselves and explain to the child what happens in the online world and how to behave and protect themselves. Children need to be told that there is a high probability that someone will contact them and if that happens, they should report it immediately.
Our interlocutor notes that children are known to endure violence, peer or online sexual, for months:
„Interpol data shows that there are 750,000 predators online at any given moment. They are where children are, on social media, gaming platforms, forums… They prey, collect information, manipulate, and children aged 11, 12, 13 are not emotionally mature enough to recognize this type of deception, manipulation, and risk. They do not have the awareness or maturity to protect their private information. At that age, they are not even aware that there are malicious people in an online game.“
Emina tells us about a case where a mother created an Instagram profile for her 8-year-old daughter, which was not locked, and pedophiles contacted her, sent her videos, called her, and the child experienced tremendous stress and trauma.
„There is a lot of online sexual abuse where there is no physical contact, where someone is blackmailing and threatening you to do things in front of the camera that you wouldn’t normally do. To undress, perform a striptease, and then that pedophile or organization would sell those images and videos and make money,“ explains Emina Beković. „There are many cases where a boy or girl thinks they are chatting with their peer and sees them on the camera, but doesn’t see that person’s employer, who paid them to surf the internet, look for victims, extract information. They build that trust relationship, they are very patient, so that after a few months when they call, the child goes as if their own father was calling.“
Our interlocutor from the Contact Center mentions a case where a 14-year-old boy played football on an online platform for months with the same team that only knew each other online.
„It was like they had known each other for 100 years. That boy fell behind a bit in school and his parents reduced his game time. Those from the online football game asked him why he wasn’t online, and he said he had to practice math, had a bad grade and needed to improve it. One from the team says, ‘Why don’t you talk, I’m a math teacher, I’ll help you,’ and before every test, every written exam, he practiced online with the boy. This went on for ten months, the boy improved his grades, he was even prepared for the entrance exam. Everything was great. In the end he says, ‘Let’s meet and get to know each other.’ Of course, the child went out, had a lot of trust, and it turned out that it was a pedophile, who recruited him, there was some abuse, threats and blackmail, horrible things, but in the end it ended well.“
Emina points out that they had a case where a pedophile asked a 13-year-old girl to secretly take pictures of her and her mother while she showered and while she slept.
„There were fake ads on social media ‘free makeup for the prom’ and girls rushed, especially those who are financially unstable. Then someone writes them to take a picture and send it in the inbox, and when they do that, blackmail starts, ‘if you don’t undress or don’t take off your top, I will share the pictures with everyone, I will post them on social media’, and because they are immature and believe it will stop after that, they do it, but it goes on and on, causing horrible trauma,“ explains our interlocutor from the National Contact Center for Child Internet Safety.
