The Hotline team within Agenzija Appogg has held an outreach at University of Malta, reaching out to students and staff members alike to promote the use of its childwebalert site. This initiative, part of this year’s campaign to encourage the reporting of indecent material portraying children online, took place at Student’s House, and was also followed by an informative session about the topic, in collaboration with KSU.

This event was one of a series of outreaches being held in the community as part of the promotional campaign. Other recent similar events were held at Access Centre in Cottonera, Siggiewi Scout Group and also during an activity targeting academic staff and lecturers at Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary.

Childwebalert is an online platform whereby one may report, in a confidential and secure manner, websites which host online child sexual abuse material. Analysts within the Appogg Hotline Service analyse the content of the submitted reports and take the necessary action, which might include referring the indecent online content portraying children to the Cybercrime Unit within the Malta Police Force for further investigations.

Everyone is encouraged to visit the website www.childwebalert.gov.mt, on which one may also report other forms of abuse online such as grooming and cyberbullying. Alternatively, one may also call on Supportline 179 to report such cases.

Agenzija Appogg is a partner within the Besmartonline! project – an EU-funded project led by the Malta Communications Authority, in collaboration with the Commissioner for Children. Through this project, Agenzija Appogg’s Hotline Team regularly organises activities within schools and other entities in order to create more awareness about safer internet use among the younger generation.  Other stakeholders within this project are the Cybercrime Unit within the Malta Police Force, the Education Department, the Secretariat for Catholic Education, the University of Malta and Agenzija Zghazagh.

For further information and details about the next activity, visit besmartonline.org.mt or on Facebook – BeSmartOnline or Foundation for Social Welfare Services