Protection of children and young people

The "protection of children and young people" is a variety of regulations and measures that help to protect children and young people from threats to their well-being. Young people are entitled to healthy mental, physical and psychological development, as well as protection against physical and mental neglect, abuse and sexual abuse.

Possible dangers are present in a wide variety of areas of life, such as alcohol, tobacco and drug use, sects and psychogroups, extremism in all its forms. Mental disorders and illnesses in children and adolescents have also increased significantly as a result of increasingly unsafe living conditions and strong pressure to perform. Another important issue is to prevent violence between children and young people, such as bullying and happy slapping.

Due to the rapid technological development of our time, threats to media use are also increasing, starting with excessive consumption of television, the Internet, game consoles and co. cyberbullying, illegal downloads and pornographic content.

The Lower Saxony Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Gender Equality deals, among other things, with the protection of children and young people in education, legislation and structural matters. In particular, the protection of children and young people from violence, neglect and abuse is a high priority. As a result, numerous support measures are initiated and promoted by the state government. These include counselling centres for children and young people, coordination centres for child protection and girls' homes, as well as the training of family midwives and child protection specialists.

The promotion of regionally widely spread preventive offers is an objective of the educational protection of minors. Public and independent bodies of municipal youth assistance carry out these tasks in their area of responsibility and are provided by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Gender Equality as well as the State Office for Social Affairs, Youth and Family In the framework of project funding, consulting and further training.