CyberSafe Schools Project kicks off

Teachers and School Principals, together with the Officer from SGOD of the Schools Division of Kabankalan City during the coordination meeting

Bacolod City – Recognizing the important role of teachers and community-based mechanisms on child protection, BCDCI kicks off CyberSafe schools project in Negros Occidental in partnership with the Schools Division Offices of Bacolod City, Kabankalan City, and Negros Occidental.

“It is with high hopes that through this project, we shall be able to strengthen the security of our children from all forms of abuse and exploitation, especially online,” Kevin Gaitan, CyberSafe Schools Project Officer shares.

In 2014, Agence France Presse reported that the Philippines has rapidly become a key hub of the billion-dollar global child cybersex industry, with operators aided by widespread poverty and legal loopholes that allow them to remain anonymous.

CyberSafe Schools Project aims to Improve the security of at least 15, 000 children in 12 schools in Western Visayas (Negros Occidental) from online abuse and exploitation through strengthening community-based child protection mechanisms and systems, most especially school child protection committee and the barangay council for the protection of children.

The project is implemented through a consortium of four (4) non-profit organizations namely, Bakyas Community Development Center Inc, Stairway Foundation, Self-Help Approach and Rights-Based Environment, Inc, and the Foundation for the Development of Agusanons, Inc, and is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and Kindernothilfe based in Germany.