In this issue:
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CHILDREN'S RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH TO VIOLENCE PREVENTION
In this month’s CRINmail we focus on two issues that are earning increased attention at the international level. In the first, bullying, we challenge the assumption that ‘children can be so cruel’ by looking at the role adults also play in this phenomenon, and covering practices that amount to bullying but which are often not recognised as such. For the second issue, child sexual exploitation online, we look at existing efforts to protect children, but highlight where these might inadvertently infringe upon children’s other rights. For both these issues, CRIN emphasises the importance of education for raising awareness in children, developing resilience and coping strategies, and helping children to be their own protectors.
BULLYING
Bullying in schools
Bullying can be a product of the values that children are taught, and school curricula play a part in entrenching certain social values in children. School textbooks in some countries, for instance, contain information that seeks to inculcate bias and discrimination in children. Textbooks used in Israeli schools contain anti-Palestinian ideology by depicting Palestinians as terrorists, refugees and primitive farmers, with scholars saying that this bias conditions Israelis to hold prejudices against Palestinians from a young age. In Ukraine, a fourth-grade health textbook included illustrations depicting negative Roma stereotypes, while two fifth-grade history books depicted Muslims in a negative light. Read more country examples here.
The absence of school education on certain issues also feeds into existing stereotypes by failing to counter negative social attitudes of population groups. For example, while studies have shown that children who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) and those perceived as such experience bullying more than their heterosexual peers, school education on sex, sexuality and relationships usually does not address issues relating to LGBT children. In some school districts such topics are even explicitly banned from discussion in the classroom, with ‘gag policies’ preventing teachers from discussing such issues with their pupils or even facing fines in countries that have banned the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality. School staff can also play an indirect part in bullying of pupils when they fail to intervene in instances of harassment. In Britain, for example, three in five pupils who experience homophobic bullying say that teachers who witness the harassment never intervene.
School dress codes are known to reinforce traditional expectations of gendered and sexual behaviour, and female students are particularly affected by what has been coined as ‘slut-shaming’ - a form of gendered bullying - on the part of school staff. School authorities have been known to draw attention to children who transgress these expectations in ways intended to humiliate and make an example of them. This approach in line with the bullying ethos whereby a person whose behaviour, identity or appearance diverge from the norm is seen as a legitimate target. Measures against girls perceived to be acting in sexually provocative ways - such as revealing skin or wearing figure-hugging clothing like leggings to school - include making them wear oversized ‘shame suits’. In one case in the United States, a student was forced to wear baggy trousers and a yellow shirt each with the words “dress code violation” written on it.
Bullying in the home
Despite the fact that from a children’s rights perspective ‘family’ is an arrangement which provides care, nurture and development, it can also be a setting in which violence and harassment that amounts to bullying takes place. This is the case with corporal punishment. The practice meets two of the defining characteristics of bullying behaviour, which sees an adult striking a comparatively smaller child (imbalance of power) with the intention of inflicting pain (the importance of intention). While this is done in the name of discipline, research shows that corporal punishment has outcomes similar to those that result from bullying, including poor school results, low self esteem and depression. Like bullying, corporal punishment also creates an environment of fear and hostility in a child. What’s more, studies have shown that corporal punishment of children contributes to the cycle of violence, as it links growing up in a punitive household with aggression in later years, including bullying behaviour and victimisation of others.
Bullying online
While research shows that children are bullied more offline than online, cyberspace nonetheless presents a relatively new and unregulated setting where bullying takes place. Cyberbullying has rightly triggered concerns because of its inescapability - it does not abate when children are in the privacy of their own home - and its potential anonymity, both of which have been factors in child suicide cases. Yet adults are still foundering about how to deal with the issue, often taking misguided approaches, including punitive ones. For instance, New Zealand has enacted the Harmful Digital Communications Act of 2015, which criminalises online communications deemed deliberately harmful. The law creates a number of new offences, with penalties ranging from monetary fines for posting harmful digital communication to up to three years’ imprisonment for incitement to suicide.
While some organisations informing policy responses to cyberbullying have noted that young internet users must take responsibility for their online actions and respect the rights of other Internet users, they also emphasise the need for governments to deliver education on digital literacy and safety skills to children. Whereas the punitive response to cyberbullying serves merely as a retributive measure which fails to address the underlying causes of bullying (both generally and in individual cases, such as violence in the home of a child who bullies), education on the other hand can guide children to use the technology in ways that encourage respect, understanding, and responsibility.
The above text is a shortened version of CRIN's submission to the UN Secretary-General’s 2016 report on “Protecting children from bullying”.
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CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION ONLINE
The need for protection is undoubtedly important in the fight against child sexual exploitation arising from children’s use of information and communication technologies (ICTs); but existing efforts to this end - despite being well-intended - can, in practice, inadvertently infringe upon children’s other rights. The following looks at some examples.
Right to privacy
The will to protect children from sexual exploitation online has largely led to blanket surveillance measures, which inevitably impact on children’s right to privacy. Digital devices and applications enable collection and sharing of children’s personal information, often without their knowledge, and frequently beyond their control. While case law on the issue is still evolving, there have been a number of rulings that have addressed the need to balance children’s right to privacy with their right to protection. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has upheld the right to privacy of communications, while recognising that “such guarantee cannot be absolute and must yield on occasion to other legitimate imperatives, such as […] the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.” While holding the same position in an August 2015 ruling, the Colombian Supreme Court also made it clear that any parental intervention that is not intended to protect the child would breach the child’s privacy and be “illegal and reprehensible”.
Right to access information
Blanket filters also inevitably have consequences for children’s access to information. The reach of such filters extends far beyond websites containing, for example, adult sexual content, with many reports of blocks to other websites, including of education, health and charity organisations. In particular, laws banning the possession and distribution of vaguely defined ‘harmful information’ often restrict children’s access to websites about sexual health and relationships -- a subject which helps children to learn about healthy and consensual behaviour and be able to identify abusive and exploitative behaviour. Indeed this information is essential for children to make safe and informed choices about interactions with other Internet users, and also concerns children’s right to education, health and protection.
Right to protection from abuse
In wanting to protect children from abuse, adults’ automatic response to the risk can be to remove the technology from the child on the assumption that no access will eliminate the danger. But simply restricting access (to either technology or sites and services) is not a sustainable or effective approach to protection; instead, policies should recognise the need to build children’s capacity to protect themselves when using ICTs. Age-appropriate school education on digital literacy and sex, health and relationships is key in this respect, as effective risk prevention depends in part on a child’s opportunities to develop resilience. This entails raising children’s awareness of potential risks so they are able to identify them, exercise critical judgement and make informed choices. ICTs and online technologies should be employed to this end, rather than just being a facilitator of child exploitation, they are also importantly a tool for protection.
From protection to criminalisation
Laws designed to protect children from sexual exploitation are increasingly being used to criminalise children themselves, showing that law enforcement solutions can undermine some rights even as they seek to address others. The phenomenon known as sexting, for example, is not uncommon among teenagers and is recognised as age-appropriate developmental behaviour. But the exchange of sexually explicit images, even if consensual, has resulted in children being prosecuted for sexual exploitation of a minor for possession of the images. Children have even been prosecuted for taking and storing explicit images of themselves, essentially being charged with exploiting themselves. Such charges can result in imprisonment and even being registered as a sex offender. Children have been placed on sex offender registries for years and even a lifetime for consensual sexual activity with another child, despite the negative impact this has on a child’s education and employment opportunities in later life. There have been instances where the blanket application of sex offender laws, even against children, have been successfully challenged, including in South Africa.
Access to justice
In the face of violations of children’s rights, both resulting from sexual exploitation and from inappropriate protection policies, children must have access to justice. In the words of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: “for rights to have meaning, effective remedies must be available to redress violations”. This requires States to ensure children have meaningful and child-friendly access to the judicial system, including “a readily available, prompt and effective remedy in the form of criminal, civil, administrative or disciplinary proceedings,” according to the Committee.
The above text is a shortened version of joint submission by CRIN and partners to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in preparation of its report on "Information and communication technology and child sexual exploitation".
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