New Delhi: With the aim of helping young people be safe online, Instagram today announced two campaigns – one, ‘Safe Stree’, that will spread awareness about the safety features available on the platform, and two, ‘My Kanoon’, that will inform them about the legal rights and protections available to them. These campaigns will also feature a diverse set of creators, appearing in multilingual content, to help young people across the country.
Madhu Sirohi, Head of Policy Programs and Outreach, Facebook India, shares more context, “Young people in India use Instagram to safely express themselves. While we continue to innovate with our product, we also wanted to create awareness locally about the way our community can feel safe online. With ‘Safe Stree’ and ‘My Kanoon’, we’re respectively doing that, by scaling awareness about our safety features and informing young people about the rights and protections available to them under the law. We’re thankful to our partners – Yuvaa and Pink Legal, and Nyayaa and We The Young – for their partnership in this endeavour.”
‘Safe Stree’ on Instagram
In partnership with Yuvaa, a youth media and insights company, and Pink Legal, a platform to understand women’s rights and laws, Instagram has today launched ‘Safe Stree’, to challenge gender stereotypes and create a safer and kinder online space for women.
The campaign will last for a month and will unfold in two parts – first, a six-part training program for creators on ways to build more inclusive spaces online, and second, a content series on Reels, highlighting safety features available for women on Instagram. A total of 30 reels would be published in this series, by a diverse set of 6 creators – Amritha Suressh, Poornima Ravi, Antara Naina Roy Majumder, Tanya Appachu, Maitrayanee Mahanta, and Samruddhi Patil in their own native languages. This will go live on @weareyuvaa’s Instagram account, as well as the respective creators’ Instagram accounts.
‘My Kanoon’
In partnership with Nyayaa, an open-access legal information platform, and We The Young, a youth media organization showcasing stories of young Indians, Instagram has today launched ‘My Kanoon’, to simplify and explain the laws to young people. Along with Instagram’s safety controls, this will equip them and their caregivers to make informed legal action and interact with justice systems.
The campaign is rooted in the insight that lack of awareness and information is a hindrance to young people when they need legal assistance. Thus through this campaign lasting three months, there will be over 50 pieces of short and long-form content by young content creators, on topics ranging from online violence, bullying, and harassment, child sexual abuse, and children in conflict with the Law.
Nyaaya will provide the research and technical support, while We The Young will work with content creators to produce engaging video content. The content will go live on @wetheyoungindia’s and @nyaayaorg’s Instagram accounts.
These campaigns are the latest in a series of content-led initiatives from Instagram, happening on an ongoing basis, to help foster a safe and supportive environment on the platform. For instance, the #DekhoPoochoSuno campaign that launched in September by Instagram, in partnership with Terribly Tiny Tales and the Suicide Prevention India Foundation (SPIF).
Follow #SafeStreeOnInstagram and #MyKanoon respectively, for the latest on both the campaigns.
