Project Virtual courage

Nobody is feeling delighted by hearing about violence committed on children. Police Force of the Slovak Republic carries out lot of preventive activities to provide the necessary information to the pupils of primary school on how to proceed in case of cyber-violence. Police officers point out the threats aimed at young people through the regional project "Virtual Courage". They warn about the existence of offenders among “friends” on social networks who know how to impress a child and manipulate it for their personal benefits. The project also alerts to cases of sexual extortion resulting from "sexting" - the exchange of sexual content or images. Experience has shown that young people create photos by themselves and consciously send them over the internet or mobile phone. Current technologies allow the photos to be spread further and this often leads to harassment and bullying online and then to self-abuse of victims or even to suicide. Prevention police officers are trying to provide to young people as much information as possible to avoid the situations when children become victims of sexual abuse online. Meanwhile, they are looking for the most effective ways to help them in case of problems.