Almost one in every three calls made to the child protection hotline 179 in 2019 and 2020 were related to cyberbullying, while one in seven were made in relation to concerns about sexting (the sharing of sexually explicit images or videos). 

The figures were released in a press conference about the Be Smart Online Campaign on Thursday. The campaign works to raise awareness and prevent the exploitation of children on the internet. 

While the majority of calls on 179 were about cyberbullying (31 per cent) and sexting (14 per cent), concerned citizens also called in frequently about excessive internet use (11 per cent), harmful content (9 per cent), gaming (8 per cent), hate speech at 7 per cent respectively and sexual harassment and sextortion some 3 per cent each. (Sextortion is the threat to release sexual images)

The number of reports made to 179 as well as through the online portal Child Web Alert more than tripled in a year, going from a total of 282 report in 2019 to 886 reports in 2020.

Appoġġ director Graziella Castillo attributed the increase to children having had to spend more time using devices and connected to the internet due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Foundation for Social Welfare Services head Alfred Grixti said that the programme was the “continuation of a success story”, currently employing 12 people to man the hotline 24/7 and fielding some 13,000 calls a year.

“The discovery of abuse can happen at any time, which is why we make sure that this service is available at any hour of the day, where professionals who are trained to help will assist you every step of the way,” he said.