SAFE-NET: Creating a Safety Net for girls victims of online violence

About SafeNet project

The Greek-Norwegian collaboration project “SAFE-NET: Creating a Safety Net for girls’ victims of Online Violence” (2021-2023) aims to create a security network to address online violence against women and girls. Click here for background information on online violence and cybersafe toolkit.
 
The project aims to raise awareness among parents, school professionals and potential victims of online violence. Project activities include

• capacity building among school personnel on identifying and treating incidents of online violence in the school setting
• providing support and information to potential victims on how to address and deal with online violence
• advocacy activities aimed at the adoption of new and relevant policies.  

Online Violence” is implemented under the Active citizens fund in Greece (EEA Grants) in cooperation with Union of Women Associations of Heraklion Prefecture and Institute of Humanities & Social Sciences
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November 2022

​Meeting for the project in Heraklion, Crete

Project partners from the participant organizations, The Union of Women Associations of Heraklion Prefecture (UWAH), the “Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences (IAKE)”, and KUN Centre for Equality and Diversity, had the opportunity to collaborate and further develop the project deliverables, as well as plan the next steps. 

The project partners focused on development of tools for school professionals and secondary school teachers, as well as parents of adolescents aiming at addressing and preventing incidents of cyberviolence.
 
By the end of the year the project group aims to release a practical manual on how to handle an incident of cyberviolence for frontline professionals (social workers, teachers, psychologists). It will contain the necessary knowledge on this type of violence, tools for reporting of cyberviolence and supporting its victims. 
 
Read the full press release here

August 2021

A new intervention to tackle cyber violence against girls

A new intervention to tackle cyber violence against girls and women has been launched, aiming at a sustainable and effective response by frontline professionals and their family members.
Online violence is predominantly targeted at women and girls, with young women and adolescent girls being at particular risk of online abuse and harassment. The United Nations (UN) report “Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls: A Worldwide Wake-Up Call” notes that globally 73% of women have experienced some form of online violence. Online abuse and harassment originate, reinforces, and reproduce the same structural inequalities and discrimination as other forms of gender-based violence. The prevention of the phenomenon and its effective response is considered to be of paramount importance. Changing societal attitudes and perceptions is the first step in changing the way cyber violence is treated as a serious challenge. In this context, it is essential to raise awareness and inform both the new generation of technology users, i.e. boys and girls, and parents and school professionals, as well as to create tools to protect and support women and girls who are victims of violence.

The project aims to create a safety net to address gender-based online violence and support girl victims of violence, through actions developing the capacity of school professionals to identify and manage incidents in the school environment, raising awareness of parents and families about the phenomenon and management of disclosure of violence.

It is particularly important to create a framework of safety for adolescent girls, so that they can disclose phenomena and incidents of violence online without fear and, most importantly, in a safe and supportive environment. Research has shown a very low level of perception on the part of teachers but especially on the part of parents of this phenomenon. Furthermore, research has shown the weakness of frontline staff in dealing effectively with such incidents, a gap that SAFENET is called upon to fill.
 
In this framework, a reporting and support protocol for victims of gender-based cyber violence will be developed and disseminated to frontline staff in Greece and Norway. In addition, guidelines for parents and their supportive context will be developed for the phenomenon, while all these interventions will form the central core of education and dissemination activities in school communities and society.
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The SAFENET project is implemented in the framework of the Active citizens Fund programme, with the Union of Women Associations of Heraklion and Heraklion Prefecture, and partners KUN - Centre for Equality and Diversity (Norway) and the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences IAKE (Greece). 
 
The €13.5 million Active Citizens Fund programme is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway and is part of the European Economic Area (EEA) funding mechanism for the period 2014 - 2021, known as EEA Grants. The programmeaims to strengthen and enhance the sustainability of civil society and to highlight its role in promoting democratic processes, enhancing citizens' participation in the public sphere and defending human rights. The Active citizens fund grant for Greece is managed jointly by the Bodossaki Foundation and SolidarityNow.  Read more here.