Public Defender Nino Lomjaria is responding to a video spread via social networks, which shows child abuse and bullying. The video is taken by children and shows cruel attitude, threatening and inappropriate words and actions towards a child.

The video footage clearly shows the juvenile's face and accordingly, it is easy to identify the child, which violates the child’s right to privacy and threatens his/her psycho-emotional state.

According to the information available to us, the video is being widely spread via social networks, which is inadmissible.

The Public Defender calls on relevant state agencies to:

• Instantly stop the spread of the video;
• To start an urgent investigation into the incident, identify all persons involved in it and the source of the release of the video;
• Provide appropriate psychological and social support to the victim, including monitoring of the protection of his/her rights, in order to prevent secondary victimization;
• Take all measures to ensure correction of the violent behavior of the children involved in the video and offer them all relevant services.

The Public Defender has started to study the case and expresses her readiness to cooperate with all relevant state agencies. At the same time, we urge the public to refrain from spreading the video, taking into consideration the best interests of the child.