The protection of Lebanon's youth was reportedly threatened by online abuse, according to a conference conducted on Wednesday.
The Beirut Bar Association hosted the symposium, Protecting Children in the Digital Space.
Speakers cautioned that safeguarding children from human trafficking and sexual abuse was only one aspect of the issue; "it goes beyond that and includes the phenomenon known as cyberbullying, which sometimes leads to suicide."
According to a 2018 survey by Save the Children in Lebanon, children there were most likely to experience bodily bullying (41%), while only 6% were the targets of cyberbullying.
The research discovered that Lebanese and Syrian children were harassed at nearly the same rates, at 21 and 19 percent, and that Syrian refugee children were most likely to experience vocal abuse (32 percent).
"The many global changes and increasing risks in light of COVID-19 forced children to learn online and they are now facing various types of risks, whether through viewing harmful contents in the form of pictures and videos or by sending and sharing their pictures that travel the world in seconds, making them victims of social media," said Mayke Huijbregts from UNICEF Lebanon.