The General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police (IGPR) on Sunday announced the start of a campaign to prevent cyber-bullying designed to increase children’s online safety, write Agerpres.

The Romanian Police, through its School Safety Directorate, the department dealing with increasing the safety of pre-university students and teachers, has started the campaign for the prevention of cyber-bullying, awareness of the risks, vulnerabilities and consequences of the crime of violation of private life.

The campaign takes place between July 1 and August 31 and aims to increase awareness of the risks and consequences related to cyber-bullying and the crime of violation of private life amid the amendment and completion of Article 226 in Law 286/2009 on the Criminal Code, which criminalises the disclosure, dissemination, presentation or transmission, in any way, of an intimate image of a person without the consent of the person shown, of a nature to cause mental suffering or a destruction of personal image .

The Romanian Police are using the campaign to increase the degree of online safety of children, by informing, educating and raising their awareness over the consequences of actions deemed as cyber-bullying and the crime of violation of private life.

The campaign implementation activities are carried out nationwide both in urban and rural areas, by the school safety police, in the accommodation units where camps and excursions are organised, as well as at cultural-sporting venues , shows or other outdoor activities. Interactive activities are organised and carried out around the theme cyber-bullying and the way in which this phenomenon can be prevented.

At the end of the activity, in order to outline an overview of the phenomenon of cyber-bullying and the crime of violation of private life and also on the way in which the students understand/are aware of their consequences, each student fills in a feedback questionnaire.

The feedback questionnaire measures the degree of online safety felt by the students, estimates the incidence of the forms of cyber-bullying they face, assesses if what was presented was understood by the children, and it also evaluates the activity carried out by the police in schools.