AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHILD ABUSE

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHILD ABUSE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study
Child abuse and labour represents one of the most dehumanizing forms of human rights abuse. Top on the hat of the slavery-like practices against children is child trafficking. Combating child trafficking has gathered considerable momentum over the years with increased political awareness regarding the phenomenon, as illustrated by the localized adoption and ratification of international standards and important commitments undertaken in international conference by different states.
Child abuse or child maltreatment is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to act by a parent or a caregiver that results in actual or potential harm to a child, and can occur in a child’s home, or in the organizations, schools or communities the child interacts with.
The terms child abuse and child maltreatment are often used interchangeably, although some researchers make a distinction between them, treating child maltreatment as an umbrella term to cover neglect, exploitation, and trafficking. Different jurisdictions have developed their own definitions of what constitutes child abuse for the purposes of removing children from their families or prosecuting a criminal charge.
In 2002, the African union reaffirmed its commitment to combat child trafficking. It identified the elimination of human trafficking as an operational priority. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in 2001 developed strategies to fight child trafficking for exploitative labour purposes in West and Central Africa. In Africa, the first commitment to combat trafficking is exemplified in Africa charter on the right or welfare of the child (1990).

In the United Nations (UN) protocol to prevent, suppress or punish trafficking in person especially women and children. The United Nations convention against transitional organized crime called Palermo protocols, defineschild abuse or human trafficking to mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring as receipt of persons by means of threat, or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, abuse of power or of a position of benefit, vulnerability, of the giving or receiving of payment to receive the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation. (Arinze, 2006).

In order to mobilize effective efforts, political will and policy responses to prevent or combat child abuse or trafficking, the international community reached a common consensus on a common normative definition or trafficking in human beings which include various form of sexual exploitation or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or removal of organs. The focus of the provision stresses that trafficking for exploitative purposes should be considered a crime and must be prosecuted. It‟s also stressed that national laws should be reviewed to ensure compliance through legislative process the protocol as a model. Prior to the time, the scale of child trafficking had been hard to determine as a result of complete unavailability of databases on child trafficking or traffickers and above all the shameful delay in the adoption and enactment of the child‟s rights law by state in the country.

According to Arinze(206):
The activities of some non-governmental organizations like women or child labour eradication. Women trafficking and child labour eradication foundation (WOTCLEF) and India Renaissance brought the issue of human trafficking especially child labour to the national discourse-and made the wife of the former vice president Mrs. TitiAbubakar to initiate a bill to the national assembly in person. This action was followed by the establishment of National Agency for the prohibition child abuse / trafficking in persons and other related matters. The agency is to enforce the laws against trafficking in persons, investigate or prosecute persons suspected to engage in trafficking in persons or take change or coordinate the rehabilitation of victims of human trafficking.
Child abuse / trafficking takes place in most parts of the world. In Nigeria, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency fund (UNICEF) has identified 13 child abuse / human trafficking endemic states which include Edo, Ondo, Ebonyi, Imo, Rivers, Enugu, Ogun, Kano, Cross River, Akwa-Ibom or Delta States. Research has shown that child trafficking has become an intra cross boarder and trans-national crime. Testimonies of victims of trafficking have shown that various techniques are used by traffickers to trick children and their parents. Research has also shown that there is a very powerful and highly organized network that is reaping substantial profits from exploiting the convenience of international communication weakness of penal system and vulnerability of parents and children.

Social media which are a form of electronic communication have become the highest activity on the internet. They refer to social networking websites developed to specifically help people share their views and stay in touch with their friends, relatives and well-wishers. Social media represents a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information content which brought about the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media are also internet sites where people interact freely, sharing and discussing information about each other and their lives, using a multi-media mix of personal words, pictures, videos and audio (Bruce and Douglas; 2008, p.27).

In the early 1990s, chat rooms and bulletin boards were forms of social media; in that they helped people connect with others and share interests. A little later, dating sites hooked together those looking for partners, and Classmate.com.let people connect with people they had known in high school and college. In the early 2000s, a site called Friendster was set up where people invited their friends to join and in turn, those friends invited other friends. The site was popular for a while but it suffered from technical difficulties and fake profiles and began losing members. Some of those members went to MySpace, which had actually started in 1999 but became better known in 2003.Its roots are a little muddy because it received financial and logistical support from another company called eUniverse, and most of the early users were eUniverse employees but Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe are given credit for much of the innovations and success of the site which built up to 115 million users worldwide. Members post bios, photos, blogs, videos, and other things that strike their fancy, and some TV programmes to air on MySpace. In 2005, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (parent of Fox Broadcasting) bought MySpace for 580 million dollars. A competitor to MySpace, Facebook was started in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg while he was a student at Harvard University; it grew up rapidly about 2007. At first Facebook was solely for college and high school students, but Zuckerberg opened it to everyone and like MySpace, it encourages all types of member postings (Gross, 2010, p78). Apart from the above mentioned social media tools, there are also others. These include; Twitter, YouTube, BlackBerry Messenger, Flickr, Word Press, Blogger, Badoo, Live Journal, Wikipedia, Type Pad, Second Life and Lulu. All these social media appear in many forms including blogs and microblogs, forums, and message boards, social networks, wikis, virtual worlds, social bookmarking, tagging and news, writing communities, digital storytelling and scrapbooking, data, content, image, video sharing, podcast portals and collective intelligence.
The social media have greatly influence the way information is passed across board pertaining any issues of interest with child abuse inclusive. It is against this background that this study seek to assess the role of social media in the campaign against child abuse

1.2 Statement of the Problem
Today in west and central Africa, it is acknowledged that agricultural fields, gold and diamond mines, stone quarries and domestic work are areas where the working conditions of children are often exploitative. Furthermore, changes in old cultural practices such as fostering, handing over a child to a third party have been corrupted and abused. In recognition of the challenges, child abuse pose to the atonement of human rights, security and sustainable development and achievement of millemium development goals, the question this study seeks to answer is; how has African Independent Television (AIT) Influenced the discouragement of child abuse and labour with particular focus on child trafficking in Gariki of Abuja metropolis.

1.3 Objectives of the study
The general objective of this study is assess of the role of social medial in the campaign against child abuse.
The study has the following specific objectives:
To assess the role of social media in the campaign against child labour
To ex amine the popularity of social media campaign against child abuse.
To appraise the effectiveness of the social media campaign against child abuse
To find out how the Social media campaign have helped in discouraging the practice of child abuse and labour.
1.4 Research Questions
The study answered the following research questions
What are the roles of social media in the campaign against child abuse?
How popular is social media campaign against child abuse?
How effective is the social media campaign against child abuse?
Does the social media campaign discourage the practice of child abuse andlabour?

1.5 Scope of the study
The purpose of this study is to look at the influence of social media as a watchdog against child abuse and labour with particular reference to child abuse and child human trafficking.

1.6 Significance of the study
This study would serve as a reference material for both the students and researchers who may have their study in line with the study’s area of research.
The study will also be a useful guide for mass media organizations like the print and other broadcast institutions in planning to educate the public on the consequences of child abuse and labour.

1.7 Operational definitions of terms
Social media: The term social media refers to the Internet-based social networking websites developed to specifically help people share their views and stay in touch with their friends, relatives and well wishers.
Media:Media in this study are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media networking tools which journalists use to disseminate information to a large heterogeneous audience.
Child Abuse: It is an act which constitutes all forms of physical and emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship or responsibility, trust or power.
Child Labour: It is the employment of children in any work that deprives them or that may interfere with their education or endanger their health.
Child trafficking: trafficking is a modern form of slavery that involves displacing a child for the purpose of exploitation. It is also the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring and or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation
Mass Media: The mass media are communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated. Example, television, radio, newspapers, and magazines.
Child Trafficking: Child trafficking is a modern form of slavery that involves displacing a child for the purpose of exploitation. It is also the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring and or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation.

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