How to Protect Children from Exploitation: Lviv Strengthens the Work of Educational Safety Officers

In the context of war, the risks of children being drawn into situations of exploitation and human trafficking are increasing, while the recruitment mechanisms themselves are becoming less visible. Increasingly, they begin online — through social media, messengers, and gaming platforms, where children perceive communication as safe.

Vulnerability is also reinforced by socio-economic factors. According to the Counter–Trafficking NGO Coalition’s 2025 data, identified survivors also include minors. This underscores that prevention and early identification of risks are critically important, especially when working with children and adolescents. It is young people who are increasingly finding themselves in the risk zone due to the combination of digital activity and socio-economic vulnerability.

That is why a key role is played by professionals who work with young people every day — in particular, officers of the Educational Safety Service.

In response to these challenges, the NGO “Center “Women’s Perspectives” — a member of the Counter–Trafficking NGO Coalition, which systematically works in the field of preventing trafficking in human beings and protecting survivors, — in cooperation with Lviv State University of Internal Affairs conducted a series of educational and methodological trainings for officers of the Educational Safety Service.

A total of 68 participants took part in the trainings

Specialists who work in schools and lyceums and interact directly with children took part in the trainings. They are already passing on the knowledge they gained to students in their educational institutions.

The programme combined theory and practice and focused on key skills: understanding forms of exploitation and mechanisms of involvement, identifying signs of risk and vulnerability factors, the topic of safe migration and employment, as well as response algorithms in potentially dangerous situations.

As specialists from the NGO “Center “Women’s Perspectives” note, the nature of threats is changing: recruitment is increasingly taking place in the digital environment, and therefore the response must be rapid, flexible, and preventive. This is why this format of work makes it possible not only to transfer knowledge, but also to build a sustainable system of early response to risks in the school environment.

A distinctive feature of the trainings was the use of interactive tools — board games, comics, and educational quests that help explain risks in a form accessible to children. Among them are “Liza and Her Friends Travel the World”, “Pink Glasses”, and other materials provided by the International Organization for Migration.

Such approaches are already producing results: after the training, officers conduct sessions for students in schools and lyceums of Lviv, reaching more and more children with the topic of safety.

The trainings are aimed not only at transferring knowledge, but also at building trust between officers and students. It is through this trust that children are more likely to speak about risks and seek help.

Strengthening the capacity of such specialists is an investment in children’s safety. After all, a threat recognized in time can prevent situations of exploitation and involvement in unlawful activities.