Criminal Code and Child Rights Law don't Protect Children Abused Online in Albania 10February 2017

57 CHILDREN EXPOSED TO ONLINE ABUSE LEFT UNPROTECTED!

Tirana, 10 February 2017- on the framework of the Safer Internet Day, ALO 116 in Albania, CRCA and the Albanian Coalition for Child Education published a joint thematic report “Child Online Safety in Albaniaâ€‌. The report covers only data from 2016 and it shows that a large number of children, who report abuse and exploitation online are left unprotected by the law and the law enforcement agencies in the country.   

Analysing many cases reported at ALO 116-111: Albanian National Child Helpline, as well those reported to online platform ISIGURT.AL, numbers shows that children are fully exposed to risks due to lack of legal framework incuding Criminal Code and Child Rights Law. Almost all the online risks that children are exposed are not prescribed to the Criminal Code and to the Child Rights law. Such lack of legal protection provisions has brought a dangerous exposure of children to pedophiles, who increasingly are using internet to identify their victims. The lack of legal framework gives protection to pedophiles by creating them all the legal spaces for abusing children while online. 

For this reason ALO 116, CRCA Albania and the Albanian Coalition for Child Education required today the immediate action of the Albanian Parliament to amend the Crimianl Code. Meanwhile the new Law for the Protection of Child Rights that is to be discussed next week in the Parliament, should include specific measures for protecting children online. 

During 2016 ALO 116 dealt with more than 886 children and youths calls who reported safety issues while children were online. The National platform for reporting child abuse online www.iSigurt.al during 2016 received more than 76 reports from children and young people, exposed to inappropriate or illegal content online.