Children Safety Forum promotes quick-response teams

At the end of its sessions, the forum made a list of broad national suggestions for improving the child protection system and giving families, schools, and community groups the tools they need to make sure kids are safe and supported.

Key recommendations
The panel recommends establishing a nationwide programme to help parents learn how to protect their children and strengthen their skills. The programme will start when children sign up for kindergarten, and parents will have to get involved. This includes setting up and putting into action a "Training of Trainers" system to ensure that professionals in schools and social and educational service providers are qualified. These steps will ensure the effective implementation of the system and its widespread reach. The proposed system uses preventive measures, such as national efforts to protect the child's best interests, setting up a single hotline and smart app for reporting abuse, and creating a multidisciplinary rapid-response team that is connected to the hotline to make sure that action is taken right away.

Another recommendation was to make it necessary for a child protection specialist to be present in all places where children are, such as schools, parks, and places where they receive services. To achieve this, it would be necessary to train or hire qualified staff who would be responsible for monitoring daily incidents, identifying risk factors, addressing potential dangers to children, and promptly reporting to the relevant authorities in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

The panel additionally recommended setting up emotional-skills labs to help kids discuss their feelings as a way to protect them. These labs are meant to help kids learn more words, become better at understanding and expressing their own and other people's feelings, and ask for help when they need it. The right people will help implement the programme in schools. This will involve training trainers and child protection specialists in the education sector to make sure that the school's efforts are in line with the rest of the child protection system.

The proposals also called for the creation and automation of a single system that connects child-related datasets from security, health, education, and social services to increase the accuracy of monitoring, speed up response times, and get rid of duplicate cases. The forum also stressed how important it is to plan long-term national programs that require both men and women to build their skills before getting married. These programs should focus on the psychological and emotional aspects of parenting to help people understand the stages of child development, encourage positive caregiving practices, and help families become stable and healthy.

Accompanying activities
There was a wide array of interactive events at the forum. These included the "Emotion Rooms", which let visitors experience a child's inner world through sound-based and interactive situations that showed how compassion, care, neglect, or abuse might affect a child's emotions. The "Law Platform" showed national laws that safeguard children's rights and gave attendees the chance to make legal suggestions for how to make the protection system even better. The "Real or AI?" activity showed video clips that let people tell the difference between real footage and content made by AI. These activities made people more aware of how reliable digital content is. A special area, set up with help from the Sharjah Family Development Foundation, demonstrated how children's drawings might reveal psychological and behavioural signs.

Honouring partners
The forum thanked its partners, sponsors, and other organisations that contributed, such as the Sharjah Department of Statistics and Community Development, the Sharjah Private Education Authority, the Sharjah Social Services Department, Sharjah City Municipality, the University of Sharjah and its Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences Research, the Sharjah Civil Defence Authority, the Sharjah Media Council, the Sharjah Government Judicial Department, the Sharjah Public Prosecution, the Sharjah Police, the Ministry of Justice – Forensic Medicine Department, Al Qassimi Women’s & Children’s Hospital, the Sharjah Family Development Foundation, the Sharjah Airport International Free Zone (SAIF Zone), the Emirates Child Protection Association, the Department of Suburbs and Villages Affairs, and Sharjah Islamic Bank.

Sponsors and supporters

The forum also welcomed the participation of several prominent sponsors who contributed significantly to achieving its objectives. UAE Barq participated as a Platinum Sponsor, while the Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC) served as a Gold Sponsor. The Sharjah Roads & Transport Authority, the Sharjah Commerce & Tourism Development Authority, Alef Group, and Wasl Channel participated as Silver Sponsors. Media support was provided by Sharjah Communication Centre, marketing support by Al Sarh Advertising & Publicity, and additional support from the Sharjah Department of Agriculture and Livestock.

Thus, the Child Safety Forum 2025 concludes, carrying forward a message that “Protecting Their Innocence” is not merely a slogan for an event but an enduring commitment lived in every home and with every child growing up in Sharjah—a city that has chosen to make child protection an integral part of its identity.