Online Safety Programme: Consultant for Data Review. Pretoria, South Africa, 9 months at UNICEF

PURPOSE OF ACTIVITY/ASSIGNMENT:

Under the supervision of the Child Protection Specialist, the consultant for Data Review will directly work with the Department of Social Development, SAPS, ChildLine, Film and Publication Board, Save the Children and other partner organizations focusing on the online protection of children to examine and review data on online safety. The consultant will identify areas of synergy and system collaboration processes and use technologies to identify common reporting pathways for alignment. The consultant will review existing data systems and generate recommendations for data consolidation platforms as well as categorization and disaggregation in reporting. The consultant will review the literature and relevant documents including the data from other organisations, and organize validation workshops with government agencies and other relevant stakeholders for alignment in reporting cases of online violence.

SCOPE OF WORK:

Background:

South Africa is a middle-income country more than 27 years into the advent of democracy with remarkable progress to improve the well-being of its citizens. South Africa is recognised for its strong legislative framework and policies, including implementing children’s rights as articulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, enshrined in the Constitution of SA and the Children’s Act. South Africa is faced with the triple challenges of enduring poverty, inequality and unemployment, which impact the lives of children. Almost two-thirds of the South African children live in families below the upper bound of the poverty line with children in rural areas and those living in female-headed households, particularly at risk. This in itself creates more vulnerability for these children whilst also denying them opportunities of enjoying the benefits that technology brings about.

The fast-developing and continuously changing information and communication technology (ICT) environment is reshaping children's lives globally. Now more than ever children are increasingly relying on online and mobile technologies to learn, participate, play, entertain and socialise. The digital age has brought opportunities to children and the use thereof has been amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, despite the many positive opportunities it provides, the internet also increases children's risk of abuse and exploitation and compounds offline risks and negative experiences such as bullying and harassment, exposure to pornographic and other potentially harmful materials, and possible dangerous contacts.

In 2021 UNICEF in partnership with the South African government conducted the National Kids Online Study as part of the Disrupting Harm Study to examine the opportunities and risks of ICT within a national context. The study revealed that most children (95.3%) and their parents/caregivers (80.2%) have access to the internet via a mobile device - which brings significant opportunities as well as risks. 70% of children use the internet without parental supervision and 1 in 3 children in South Africa are at risk of online exploitation. Risky online activities included meeting someone they met on the internet face-to-face, actively seeking new friends, adding strangers as friends and sharing photos or videos of themselves with persons they have never met.
In South Africa, there are pockets of interventions to address online violence as well as to report cases of violation of children online. Different organizations report differently on cases of violence against children online. This discrepancy creates a challenge for national statistics/reporting in providing the magnitude of the challenge and developing appropriate interventions.

Scope of Work:

The scope of work will include a situational analysis of child online safety data by data gathering and analysis including systems review for different organizations. Followed by sharing global categorization and classifications of online violations against children, and supporting organizations in aligning their own data systems for coherent reporting.

Activities and tasks:

• Desk review: The consultant will conduct a literature review and consider numerous online research documents developed globally and in South Africa to conceptualize the challenges of internet use by children and adolescents. The Desktop review will clearly indicate the data systems in SA as used by different organisations reporting on lie violence
• Organize joint consultations with relevant focal government counterparts and non-governmental agencies within the Online / digital space to understand their data management systems.
• Conduct focused interviews with stakeholders IT experts or/ data system representatives and management to solicit buy-in on respective organisations’ systems alignment. including government officials, frontline workers, Childline, Film and Publication Board and Save the Children for the conceptual framework Establish the working group across different stakeholders to work together and provide inputs for data management systems review,
• Develop and provide guidelines for systems review
• Provide technical IT support
• Submit comprehensive reports to generate recommendations.