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The Cyprus Pedagogical Institute of the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth (YPAN), as coordinator of the Cyprus Internet Safety Centre and Helpline 1480, provides the update statistics for the 2nd quarter of 2024, from 1 April 2024 to 30 June 2024. Detailed information on the statistics, as well as statistics from previous periods, can be found on the website of the Cyprus Internet Safety Centre.
The 1480 Helpline "Helpline" aims to provide children and adolescents, young people, parents, teachers and the general public with advice and support services regarding the safe, responsible and ethical use of the Internet and digital technologies.
From 1 April to 30 June 2024, a total of 461 people contacted the Helpline 1480 times. Of the total number of calls, 328 calls (71.2%) were related to helpline services, while 133 calls (28.8%) were not related to the services provided and concerned information, including information on benefits and assistance from the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance, etc.
Regarding the total number of incidents related to the services of Helpline 1480, 59.5% (N=195) were women/girls and 40.5% (N=133) were men/boys. Regarding the profile of the people who called for help and support, the majority were adults (N=325, 99.1%). A small percentage (N=3, 0.9%) were minors who contacted the 1480 Helpline to report personal difficulties on the Internet, for example, cases of cyberbullying. It should also be noted that only 1.5% (N=5) of the calls from adults were made by parents/guardians and teachers and related to online difficulties for adolescents on the Internet.
Regarding the reasons for contacting the Line (Graph 1), the majority of requests related to incidents of cybercrime (N=236, 72%), i.e. dealing with privacy breaches (hacking), financial fraud or identity theft via social media or email.
At the same time, a significant proportion of requests (N=33, 10%) related to issues falling under the category of technical support. A smaller percentage (N=18, 5.5%) concerned incidents of cyberbullying and also a notable percentage (N=17, 5.2%) concerned incidents of sexual blackmail (sextortion). On the other hand, 2.4% (N=8) of calls concerned data privacy complaints, specifically cases of callers' information being used to create accounts or publish callers' material by other users without their consent.
Relevant incidents in the current quarter included incidents of creating fake/misleading profiles and publishing posts intended to harass and intimidate adolescents and adults. In these cases, Line Officers provided appropriate counselling and psychological support to the adolescents and their parents and took appropriate actions in cooperation with the Social Media platforms to delete the profiles in question, as well as with the competent authorities for further support actions.
The 1480 Helpline, aiming to provide continuous and quality real-time advice and support by trained Officers on issues related to the safe, responsible and ethical use of the Internet to children, adolescents and their families, continues to provide its services with the basic principle of ensuring that its services comply with the National Law and are interwoven with the aspect of awareness and direct service.
All citizens can contact the 1480 Helpline, by calling anonymously and toll-free on 1480 during business hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00am-1:00pm & 3:00pm-6:00pm, and Saturday 10:00am-1:00pm), or by sending an email to 1480helpline@cyearn.pi.ac.cy, or via online form, or via chat messages.
Graph 1: Percentage of incidents by category for the reporting quarter
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