Childline has embarked on a vigorous awareness campaign on online safety for children. This comes as concern has been raised over an increase in the number of online crimes being perpetrated against children. The project has already seen leading radio stations broadcasting messages and programmes on online safety.

The programmes which have been broadcast on youth national stations including powerfm and Zifm have proved popular and informative with enquiries on online safety.

Childline has also been conducting countrywide school campaigns which have carried the online safety messages which include cyberbullying, exposure to pornography, sexting amongst others.

Childline Director Stella Motsi said the project was born out of the realisation that Zimbabwe is part of the global village where technology is a major player.

“Many times our children use gadgets and we buy gadgets for our children but we don’t take time to check what our kids watch or even who they communicate with online. Crimes against children are moving from the physical space to the virtual space and we need to be able to respond and be alert to these,” she said.

Already the Zimbabwe Republic Police Victim Friendly Unit (VFU) has a special section that deals with online crimes.