Online child grooming (OCG) is fast becoming a pervasive issue for adolescents in Singapore, evident from a 2019 report by Microsoft detailing that adolescents are exposed to more online sexual risks than the global average. Despite the government implementing stricter legislation against OCG and sexual communication this January, adolescents continue to exhibit complacent attitudes towards OCG. In addition, low public saliency of the issue relieves the pressure on ecosystem stakeholders to actively strengthen protective safeguards on their platforms.

Flag, You’re It (FYI) was a campaign to build a holistic ecosystem that collaborates to combat OCG, with both ground-up and top-down approaches. Aiming to empower adolescents to flag out online friendships and conversations to a trusted peer, FYI leveraged on its unique digital activation, experiential exhibition and card game to bring awareness to this issue and encourage stakeholders to improve protective behavioural adoption.

The team interviewed four Singaporean youths and have them to share what they think about having online friends. Watch the video below:

The Highlights

FYI used a multifaceted approach to spread awareness of OCG over three months.

Its ground-up initiatives played a role in overcoming fear of societal judgement due to conservative sentiments towards online friendships, relationships and sexual topics, which has long been considered a major barrier for adolescents looking to flag their concerns to their trusted peers. The campaign thus built on Singapore’s shared values of community support and harmony through its efforts:

Usage of educational kits.

The campaign made use of educational kits that illustrated how grooming can happen to victims of any race or religion and how victims got out of the situation because they flagged out to a friend.

Created an experiential exhibition.

An experiential exhibition brought visitors through the three key stages in grooming. It used a mix of interactive artworks and contextualised storytelling to instill a sense of vulnerability, debunk misconceived stereotypes and aid visitors in understanding the efficacy of flagging out.

Playing the community-created game.

A digital card game, Candid Chats, encouraged candid peer-to-peer conversations about online friendships, relationships and boundaries. Using questions collected from the target audience in its creation, the community-created game served as an avenue for a conversation about the rising issue.

Alongside these initiatives, the campaign also made use of digital mediums to convey its message. Partnering with over 30 micro-influencers, including individuals of various races and religions, as well as school meme pages, co-created Instagram Story content explored perceptions of online relationships and tips for youths. Also, the campaign included a video series that documented victims sharing about their grooming encounter with their friends, and highlighted how the friend helped the victims overcome the encounter thereafter.

As a whole, FYI’s efforts brought about a monumental push towards combating the issue.

185 victims spoke out about their grooming experience, and 102 peers as well as loved ones contacted the campaign to enquire about a potential grooming situation that their friend was trapped in. These tactics effectively enabled us to build a supportive community and respectful safe space for victims to flag out. The ‘By Youth, For Youth’ messaging also recruited 2,701 adolescent advocates and raised over $106,000 from ecosystem partners to improve protective behavioural adoption. The campaign worked with relevant organisations across the three months, including Infocomm Media Development Authority, the Ministry of Education, TOUCH Cyber Wellness and Singapore Children’s Society.

The Memories

Presenting the partners and sponsors during the campaign’s official opening.
Giving visitors a guided tour on real victim-groomer conversations and the analyses of their underlying meanings.
A visitor drawing interest into the illustrated postcards that depicts a real victim’s story and their journey to the end of the manipulative relationship.
Visitors leaving encouraging messages to victims of online grooming as a show of solidarity.
Reading about the campaign and case studies of past accounts in Singapore.

Reflection #1 – The Challenges

Impact of COVID-19 on Exhibition.

The experiential exhibition launched a day after DORSCON-Orange was announced, leading to the immediate cancellation of learning journeys for over 500 students and additional precautionary measures at the National Library Board that resulted in long queues over the first two weeks.

To make up for the loss of visitors, the team carried out various measures to continue promoting their message. They first reached out to Primary, Secondary, Junior Colleges and Polytechnics, who agreed to share our event details with their students, as well as encouraged visitors to share about our exhibition on their social media. FYI also negotiated with the National Library Board, who extended the venue sponsorship to the March holidays and contacted parent support groups to bring their kids down. Personal tours for cyber wellness teachers were also arranged, to allow educators to gather learning points for school lessons.

Eventually, the exhibition was made digital towards the end to increase its accessibility to a wider audience. This was achieved by adapting existing materials into Instagram Posts and Stories. Watch the highlights of the exhibition below.

Cancellation of Panel Discussion.

Event location sponsor and co-host Facebook shared in late February that they had to cancel all external events as a result of the COVID-19 situation. Although alternative venue options were sought, the time frame was too tight to apply for a sponsorship. Moreover, some key guests also enquired if the panel could be postponed due to tighter measures and safety concerns. Considering all the uncertainty and growing levels of discomfort, the team decided to cancel the discussion. However, Facebook indicated that they were interested to pick the panel discussion up again once the pandemic clears.

Competing for Media Coverage.

Despite receiving decent coverage at the start of the campaign and promises of follow-ups for the exhibition, all media resources were diverted to cover the pandemic outbreak in February. Journalists who were interested to cover the exhibition launch were assigned to follow up with the DORSCON-Orange situation and could not turn up.

To overcome this challenge, FYI followed up with private tours at the journalists’ convenience and media kits with a video walkthrough for those who were unable to come down. Other angles were also explored, including how COVID-19 led to the cancellation of 500 student learning journeys, and lifestyle features promoting the exhibition. Watch the highlights of the exhibition below.

Reflection #2 – The Takeaways

Visitors of different population groups shared positive feedback from the exhibition. Many youths thanked the team for bringing to light this prevalent issue and a handful of victims also came forward at the exhibition to share their story.

A significant number of parents also visited with their primary school children along. They were shocked to learn about grooming and asked if there were more resources available for them to educate their kids at home. Cyber wellness teachers who were interested to adopt this form of experiential education into their classes were also brought around in personal tours to better understand the issue. The team is further working with one school in particular to pilot a classroom-sized exhibition.