KUBIS and Save the Children shine the spotlight on a serious societal problem: online abuse against children

KUBIS continues its collaboration with the Save the Children Association, through a new campaign that draws attention to a serious problem that our society faces: online abuse against children. This creative initiative is intended to bring in parents’ and adults’ attention a worrying phenomenon that exists around us, but which, most of the time, we do not see or do not know how to recognize.

Thus, a recent study by Save the Children shows a series of worrying data: on average, a child spends at least 4 hours online every day, and 3 out of 10 children state that they have received videos or images with content depicting nudity or sexual poses on Internet. Unfortunately, out of all of them, only one child continues to talk with an adult further on.

Online abuse can take many forms from harmful content, incitement to violence and use of psychoactive substances, to child pornography. Unfortunately, the ways in which the abuser reaches the child are often completely unknown to parents. Without being aware, the phenomenon takes on proportions and causes serious repercussions on abused children, such as anxiety, depression and suicidal tendencies.

“How to dismantle a phenomenon that you don’t know what it looks like? That was our biggest challenge. What lies in the unseen was what we wanted to bring to light. We want to show people what online abuse looks like, word for word, where it happens and how it happens. Even if it’s an uncomfortable conversation. It is a campaign that is not easy to digest, but it is something that we have undertaken, because we strongly want to reduce this phenomenon to extinction and ensure that the little ones navigate a digital world without fear,” says Maria Teodorof, Creative Director KUBIS.

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The premise is a difficult one, but KUBIS and Save the Children have set two ambitious goals to combat this phenomenon. The first is to raise awareness, so to initiate an honest discussion with adults who can change something. The second objective is to promote the tool by which Save the Children aims to stop abuses and expose the abusers: the esc_ABUZ reporting line, a civic contact point, for which the NGO collaborates with representatives of the Police.

From these insights and valuable thoughts, the KUBIS team created the “Story of abuse” campaign (Povestea unui abuz). Under the message “There are some stories you can’t ignore”, the campaign presents a series of videos that capture conversations between abusers and children, inspired by real cases.

“Online child abuse in the digital age is one of the biggest challenges for parents. The “Story of abuse” campaign is addressed to over 6 million parents in Romania, with the aim of raising awareness and identifying forms of online abuse and promoting the reporting of abusive content to the esc_ABUZ line.

Currently, online child abuse is a serious social phenomenon, which unfortunately does not receive enough attention on the public agenda. The statistics are alarming, with more than 700,000 children between the ages of 6 and 17 being exposed to sexually explicit messages online each year,” adds Bianca Mănescu, Head of Strategy & Social Intelligence KUBIS.

With voices that reproduce the innocence of children and the aggression of a malevolent adult, the conversations will annoy, shock, but hopefully also move viewers from the attitude of the viewer to that of a person who acts and then reports when interacting with inappropriate online content for children.

The main campaign’s message is also supported by a media format, the YouTube UnskippableAd, which does not allow the user to move on without viewing the content. Thus, both literally and figuratively, people understand that they cannot remain indifferent to this reality.

“When our partners from Save the Children come up with a new challenge, we get involved without hesitation, as we know that all efforts respond to an objective, with which we, in KUBIS, resonate 100%: creating a better and safer world for children. The numbers from the studies were a powerful reality check for the team, but equally motivated us to find the most striking way you can bring parents face to face with this danger. Special thanks go to our collaborators, who supported us so that the message reaches as many parents as possible in Romania,” says Camelia Matei, Group Account Director KUBIS.

The campaign is also supported by a number of parents that are influencers, who joined the message sent by KUBIS x Save the Children, agreeing to participate in a digital experiment.

“One of the simplest and most effective ways in which we can contribute to the fight against harmful content is to be active in reporting these alarming images to the authorities. The Save the Children organization will continue to work closely with the competent institutions, aiming to reduce the phenomenon of sexual abuse of children in the online environment and providing essential support to all children who become victims of these atrocities on the Internet,” emphasized Gabriela Alexandrescu, Executive President of the Save the Children Romania Organization.

The teams that created the campaign are made up of:

KUBIS project team:
Bianca Mănescu – Head of Strategy & Social Intelligence
Maria Teodorof – Creative Director

Camelia Matei – Group Account Director
Ruxandra Șulea – Account Manager

Marina Deacu – Senior Copywriter
Laurențiu Lupu – Senior Art Director
Tereza Morti – Social Media Manager
Marian Ciungu – AV

Dani Ivan – Team Lead Developer

Save The Children team:
Andreea Hurezeanu – Coordonator promovare Ora de Net
Claudia Oprescu  – Coordonator program Ora de Net

Collaborators:
Avanpost Production & Serban Pavlu
Influencers: Sore, Flick, Cristina Dumitrescu, Dana Rogoz, Liza Sabău, Marian Andrei