Alarming child death rates in traffic accidents… and an escalation in the cybercrime curve

Hadeel Ghabboun

Officials revealed that alarming rates of child victims of road accidents and electronic crimes were recorded recently during a dialogue session monitored by Al-Ghad at the National Council on Family Affairs’ Early Childhood Conference.

Child deaths in traffic accidents overall account for 17% of children under 9 and 22% of deaths for rear-seat passengers in the same age group, compared to 88% of deaths in rear-seat accidents. vehicles for children under 14 years of age.

Until last month, the Department for Cybercrime received more than 13,000 cybercriminal acts, with a growing trend compared to previous years, and among the cases registered against children or minors, the most common cases are cases of Internet violence.

These and other statistics were presented during a specialized discussion of the Conference on Early Childhood, organized on Tuesday and Wednesday by the National Council for Family Affairs, with the participation of two directors: the Department of Audit in the Department of Transport, Lt. Col. Fouad Al-Maaytah, and the Department of Social monitoring in the Department of Family and Juvenile Protection, Lt. Col. Muhammad Abu Sharkh and First Lt. Ali Al-Daraba of the Cybercrime Unit.

Al-Maaytah warned against neglecting to adhere to methods of protecting children from passengers in the back seats of vehicles and luggage boxes, pointing out that there is a prevailing general belief that the danger in traffic accidents is limited to accidents involving being run over or sitting in the front of the seat only, given that that statistics kill children in various traffic accidents, Danger signs.

He revealed the latest statistics from the Department of Transport on the deaths of children, of which 17 percent are recorded in traffic accidents in the under-9 age group, and 27 percent in traffic accidents of the same age group, while revealing that 88 percent of traffic accident deaths are in driving a cargo box belong to the age group younger than 14 years, and that 22% of deaths in traffic accidents that happen to passengers sitting in the back seats of vehicles belong to the age group younger than 9 years.

Al-Maaytah pointed to the absence of binding legal provisions for the allocation of child seats in the back seats and the use of seat belts, while stressing that the use of child seats reduces mortality among them by 60%.

He renewed the reminder of the reality of traffic accidents in general, according to last year’s statistics, according to which there is an accident with loss of life every 47 minutes, and a traffic accident every two and three hours, as well as a death recorded every 15 hours in a traffic accident, compared to by registering an injury every 30 minutes in a traffic accident.

Globally, Maaytah showed that 93% of the world’s traffic deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, despite these countries owning 60% of the world’s vehicles, compared to 7% of the world’s traffic deaths in countries that own 40% of vehicles. vehicles.

Al-Maaytah considered that the prioritization of traffic safety issues by some strategic partners and the lack of development of the legislative system to keep pace with the traffic process are among the most prominent challenges in solving this file.

Abu Sharkh said that there are 17 field units, linked to the Department of Family Protection in the governorates, in addition to two detachments in the Zaatari and Azraq camps for Syrian refugees, which work within 11 specific specializations related to issues of domestic violence, sexual assault, juvenile delinquency, criminal acts of adultery and corruption of marital relations as a new specialization, and according to the application of 10 mechanisms of different case reports.

He also indicated that the institutionalization of the reporting mechanism has accelerated the response in dealing with cases, and the automation of various stages of proceedings, especially in cases of sexual assault, indicating that there are future projects that the administration is working on, including the establishment of an integrated service center to reduce the frequency of cases in the making reports, due to the long duration of certain procedures and the strengthening of the incubation environment, as well as bringing partners under one roof with the administration.

As for cybercrime statistics received by the Cybercrime Unit, they showed a general upward curve from 2018 to 2022, according to First Lt. Ali Al-Darabi.

Al-Daraba revealed that the unit overall received more than 13,000 cybercrime cases by the end of last month, distributed between 7,116 cybercrimes committed against men and 6,365 against women, without a numerical breakdown of the number of cases that occurred against children among them. .

He said the unit received 7,672 cases in 2018, compared to 8,483 cases in 2019, 9,514 cases in 2020 and 12,872 cases last year, indicating that there is a widening of cybercrime segments, especially among men.
Al-Daraba considered that these figures are very difficult to reduce in light of technological developments, stressing the importance of dealing with them in accordance with swift legal procedures.

Regarding the most important criminal methods used against children according to the cases mentioned as a whole, abuse is based on 3 methods, the first is incitement to self-harm or suicide, the second is through sexual exploitation, and the third method is through bullying.
He explained that cases of sexual exploitation in themselves are a qualitative specialty of the Family Protection Department, but sometimes they are followed by other cases that the unit monitors, such as subsequent electronic announcements by other parties or colleagues about the exposure of some children, or threats directed at them.

He confirmed that cyberbullying is the most common problem in cases of cybercrime related to children dealt with by this unit, noting that this year 576 lectures were organized in several schools in order to raise awareness of the seriousness of this criminal act, and were conducted by experts from the units. .

Al-Durabaa indicated that several meetings were held with representatives of social media companies to exchange information to address children’s problems as urgent issues, while the conference on early childhood “Reality and Possibilities” issued a final statement at the end of its work yesterday, which includes recommendations on the axis of protection, parental awareness, education and health.

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