We see warnings and news about online safety for banking and financial transactions, data security, and so much more, day in and day out. With an increasing number of children beginning to use the internet owing to the pandemic, the subject of their safety adds up to the long list of things that we need to be aware of and do something about when it comes to internet safety. 

It is no secret that children are often abused in a familiar environment as well, and parents and teachers try to make sure that no kid becomes the victim of such atrocity. But this becomes an easy occurrence when it comes to children using online methods of learning.

The team understands that it is a necessity now, with over 15% of the online users between the ages of 5-11 years. With the pandemic giving rise to this number, in 2019 alone, there were 20 lakh cases of Child Sexual Exploitation online. The number has drastically increased by 77% in the last year alone. When these facts came to light, Vedantu collaborated with Space2Grow (S2G) to ensure that serious steps were taken to prevent them from happening.

For this purpose, the team has conducted extensive research in the area. They have considered the facts surrounding the risks children face in the digital space, the possible measures that can be taken as well as the changes that the businesses could undertake on the policies of the platform allowing an increased layer of safety for the children.

The platform has taken a 4-faceted initiative to take a step forward in the children's safe space. One of them is, obviously, creating awareness amongst children, teachers and guardians regarding the issue. Training sessions for all stakeholders have been conducted extensively, which has led to higher awareness and without fear of reporting. They have set up an in-house child safety team to monitor and handle such situations effectively. The next thing is to change the internal policies of the Vedantu platform, making it the first of its kind child safety policy. All the verticals and organizational policies are amended in a way that child safety is a priority every step of the way.

Apart from these, Vedantu has incorporated some product-level changes as well. They have started hashing out any abusive content from the chat rooms or any communication medium on the platform, whether it is in the form of text, image, or any link that shouldn't be allowed around children. The platform also has an instant reporting system through the wave platform. 

Towards creating benchmarking standards for child safety compliance, they have analysed the Global standards with respect to the issue and have prepared a suggestive policy to present in front of the Government. They have arranged an online child safety session with National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) representation and the report was launched in their presence. By far, they have arranged for an engagement with Karnataka Government regarding the suggestive Child Safety guidelines.

The Government intervention in the matter can multiply the effectiveness intended in the digital space since resorts show that only 16 out of the top 100 tech firms have some kind of child safety measures in place. Additionally, only 23 of these 100 reports the incidents that are in violation of child safety rights. The indicators based on which these top platforms are evaluated do not include child safety as one of the basic parameters. That needs to change globally and the initiative by Vedantu and Space 2 Grow is a step in that direction. 

The Vedantu platform has instilled a whole framework, which is a trademark of S2G, for ensuring child safety which stands on 4 major indicators of internal assessment.

1. Accountability
2. Reporting & Redressal Mechanism
3. Privacy & Data Handling
4. Digital Risk & Harms

Presently, Vedantu has become the first Indian ed-tech platform to have adopted a Zero Tolerance policy against child bullying and abuse, in addition to having taken elaborate action against the issues facing online child safety. With continued innovation and automation, Vedantu intends to make significant progress in favor of child safety.