Context and Challenges
UNICEF Pakistan runs vaccination campaigns in a context where rumours about vaccine safety, fertility and religion can discourage families. It also needed to understand how children and parents experience risks online, in order to design an effective child online protection campaign.
Our Role
UNICEF Pakistan uses social and community listening systematically, drawing on our reports and i-Hear-U, the platform we built for UNICEF to analyze online and community feedback data. For vaccination, the office identifies the main concerns and rumours, then develops tailored actions by province and audience. It briefs trusted community leaders, frontline workers and other stakeholders accordingly.
From September 2023 to June 2024, social listening guided the child online protection campaign. The analysis covered more than 1.9 million public mentions on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube and blogs. Communities, especially women and girls, raised concerns about cyber harassment and the social pressure that discourages reporting. Catfishing and deepfakes used to deceive or exploit users, especially girls, were a recurring theme. Users also asked for tools and advice to help parents protect their children online.
Results
The campaign was reoriented around online harassment, catfishing and positive parenting. A short video was produced on each theme and shared on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Content used regional languages and worked through community influencers and mobilisers to reach diverse and hard to reach audiences. New resources showed parents how to use parental controls, recognise signs of online harm and keep an open dialogue with their children.
As a result, the campaign addressed the concerns communities were actually expressing, which made it more relevant and inclusive.