Launched in May 2009, Keep Your Chats Exactly That! is a campaign by Girl'sNet, a daughter project of Women'sNet, designed to empower young people to prevent them from becoming victims of harassment, bullying, and violence when using the internet and cell phones. It also works to encourage strategies for using information and communication technologies (ICTs) in affirmative ways to advocate for change on issues that concern young people.
The project works to address violence experienced in internet and mobile phones by raising awareness and disseminating information through sms and email, stickers, posters, factsheets, and outreach to schools, learners, parents and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Women's Net has created a platform for young people affected by harassment and bullying in their environments, to encourage them to share their experiences with their friends. Young people are encouraged to send five friends their experiences of harassment and tactics on how they have dealt with it. They then ask the receivers to send their own to five more friends.
The campaign also encourages young people to participate in online discussions. The launch of the project included a discussion on the following questions:
In addition, the campaign is running an online sticker campaign which allows people to download a campaign sticker which can be inserted as a profile picture on instant messaging, on social networking (e.g. MySpace, Orkut, Facebook) spaces, or on a blog account.
According to Women's Net, there is an increased need for young people who access, use, and own spaces such as the internet and cell phone technology for their own development. These tools offer huge potential for addressing development challenges. However, the prevailing gender disparities and power imbalances between males and females play out in these virtual environments, as well as in reality. Cell phones have been implicated in transactional sex, in the production, sharing and distribution of pornography, and in human trafficking. Creating safe spaces for the youth to communicate and express their needs has become an important tool in the fight against such rising social problems. This campaign, therefore serves to address violence experienced through the internet and cellular phones by raising awareness and disseminating information, and therefore promoting the use of the same tool for positive special participation on the same issue.
Gender, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
Women’s Net is a South African based non-governmental organisation that works to advance gender equality. Its work focuses on the intersection between gender and information and communication technologies (ICTs). It recognises that ICTs are a gendered tool and aims to address imbalances in women and men’s access to and meaningful use of ICT’s. Girls' Net, a project by Women’s Net, is a South African social and multi-media programme that gets girls involved in the use of ICTs for their own development. The aim of the project is to use ICTs to help girls realise their full potential.
Women'sNet, Take Back the Tech, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
P.O. Box 62577
Women's Net website [6] on June 24, 2009.
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Links:
[1] http://www.comminit.com/en/node/279425
[2] http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=http://www.womensnet.org.za/
[3] http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=
[4] mailto:women@womensnet.org.za
[5] http://www.comminit.com/en/comment/reply/279425#comment-form
[6] http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?m=8d47dcab059b65bca5f9ffefb922a72a