SOCIETY

According to the Council of Europe and UNICEF, 1 in 8 children worldwide have been sexually abused or exploited at some point in their lives. In Europe, around 1 in 5 children are estimated to have experienced some form of sexual violence and between 70 and 85% of children know their abuser. A third of abused children never tell anyone about their abuse.

Regarding the online dimension of the phenomenon in Greece, the Directorate of Cybercrime in the period 2017-2021 investigated 1,044 cases of pornography of minors (article 348A of the Criminal Code) and 319 cases of sexual exploitation of minors (articles 337, 348B, 348C of the Criminal Code).

Violence against children is a multidimensional phenomenon with profound implications affecting millions of children around the world. It is a fundamental violation of their rights and its prevention, response and eradication is the responsibility of all of us. The need to protect children's rights calls for immediate action to end the cycle of violence.

The "Together against violence against children" initiative in the first phase of cooperation had 3 dimensions with corresponding objectives:

Mapping of administrative data on violence against children in Greece and development of a national monitoring framework.
Disseminate a mobile phone application on various forms of violence against children, including gender-based violence and cyber violence. 2,000 adolescents familiarised with evidence-based strategies to protect themselves from online violence.
Development of a media training package on protecting children from all forms of violence. 70 media professionals with increased knowledge and skills to appropriately and ethically report cases of VAC and understand the child protection system.

The second phase of the initiative is to model a functioning child protection system for Greece from which 93,000 children and 2,000 professionals, such as teachers, school psychologists and parents, are expected to benefit from being sensitised and informed.

The first dimension of the programme is addressed to the State and to services that are the recipients of incidents of violence against children. The second dimension of the programme is addressed to all adolescents aged 14-17, their families and teachers. The third dimension of the programme is aimed at journalists and all communication professionals for proper management, in terms of publicity and media coverage of child abuse incidents. Finally, as the support of the programme was linked to Lidl Hellas' easter loyalty campaigns, the communication of the programme and the awareness raising activities on the issue of violence against children were directed towards all our consumers and customers.

The second phase of the initiative is addressed to the Municipalities of Greece, with the Municipality of Athens as the pilot, while a communication plan will be developed to address all stakeholders.

In April 2023, Lidl Hellas launched its cooperation with UNICEF against violence against children. In April 2024, it extended this multidimensional cooperation with a new action that will aim (a) to develop an operational framework in the Municipalities and to pilot a uniform methodology in the short, medium and long term (b) to support the social workers who will constitute the relevant department (c) to extend the social service of the Municipalities to the wider community in order to intervene in cases of neglect/abuse of children in a timely manner.