UAE, AL, UNICEF Launch 'Safe Internet For Our Children' Campaign

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 18th Sep, 2025) Under the slogan “Safe Internet for Our Children”, the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, in cooperation with the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood of the United Arab Emirates, the Arab Council for Childhood and Development, and UNICEF’s Regional Office, launched the second campaign on “Protecting Children on Social Media”.

The announcement was made today during the 29th session of the Arab Childhood Committee, chaired by the Republic of Djibouti via videoconference, with the participation of national mechanisms concerned with childhood across Arab countries, alongside representatives of civil society, and regional and international organisations.

Reem bint Abdullah Al Falasi, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, affirmed that social media platforms have today become one of the most influential channels in shaping the upbringing, values, and behavior of children. This, she noted, requires continuous efforts to monitor the content reaching children, safeguard them from extremist and deviant ideas, and prevent any form of exploitation.

She underlined that the digital space is filled with both positive and harmful content, and that preventing children from accessing it altogether is no longer feasible, given the rapid development of technology on one hand, and its indispensable role in education and daily life on the other. Accordingly, she stressed the importance of finding mechanisms to guide and regulate children’s use of the internet, while strengthening their ability to resist harmful influences on the physical, intellectual, and behavioral levels.

She further pointed out that the internet, and particularly social media, carries serious risks for children and adolescents, including exposure to inappropriate content, cyberbullying, online fraud, and exploitation by individuals who misuse applications and platforms to obtain children’s personal information or lure them into unsafe communication.

Other risks include excessive screen addiction, physical fatigue, and negative impacts on mental health and wellbeing.

She praised the launch of this campaign and its use of innovative awareness materials that contribute to building children’s resilience in the digital sphere across the Arab world. She emphasised that such initiatives enable safer and more responsible use of technology, protecting young generations — the foundation of the future — from exploitation, distortion, and behavioral deviation, while nurturing a generation capable of harnessing modern technologies in support of development and progress in the Arab region, in line with the values and ethics of Arab societies.

The campaign features a high-quality animated video series for children titled “Alpha and Zain”, produced in Arabic, English, and French. Comprising five episodes, the series portrays situations faced by a modern family and delivers key messages on responsible internet use, digital ethics in artificial intelligence, tackling cyberbullying, managing time to avoid social media addiction, balancing online and offline life, and recognising and verifying misinformation online.

This campaign represents the second phase of the “Safe Internet for Our Children” initiative, in line with the recommendations of the Arab Childhood Committee, and follows the first campaign launched in 2021 under the title “Alpha Giga and Giga”. It aims to raise awareness among children and parents about the safe and responsible use of the internet — particularly social media — while highlighting ways to report risks and violations. The initiative stands as a positive step in advancing joint Arab action to protect children’s rights within the digital sphere.