Support youth's mental health-social reintegration

In Colombia today, the threat of child recruitment is no longer confined to remote rural areas or physical encounters. Armed groups are increasingly using social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and WhatsApp to target children and young people, presenting violence and criminal activity as attractive pathways to belonging, money, or status. Videos glamourising life within armed groups can receive hundreds of thousands of views, exposing vulnerable young people to manipulation and coercion on platforms they use every day.

This growing digital threat comes against the backdrop of a wider national crisis. According to Colombia’s National Center for Historical Memory, more than 17,860 minors were recruited by armed groups between 1958 and 2020. More alarmingly, reports from the Ombudsman’s Office show that cases have sharply increased in recent years, rising from 37 reported child recruits in 2021 to more than 400 between 2023 and 2024.

In response, we have created a project to help children and young people navigate online spaces safely while addressing some of the root causes that make recruitment possible, including poverty, exclusion, lack of opportunities, and social marginalisation.

Through psychosocial support sessions, digital literacy workshops, and livelihood and entrepreneurship training, the project is helping to strengthen resilience and create safer, more protective environments for children and young people. Importantly, young participants themselves have played a central role in shaping the initiative. In Bogotá and Villavicencio, children and young people took part in co-design sessions that informed the planning and development of workshops and activities, ensuring the project reflects their lived realities and concerns.

Alongside direct workshops, the project is also developing a digital prevention campaign designed to reach young people in high-risk communities with anonymous, locally adapted messaging focused on online safety and awareness.

During this initial phase, the team has focused on mapping existing digital literacy and prevention initiatives across Colombia, developing workshop syllabuses, and building partnerships with organisations and stakeholders working in child protection and youth development. These collaborations have already strengthened knowledge sharing and informed the development of pilot workshops that will guide the project’s future implementation.

Each year, the project aims to engage more than 680 children and young people, alongside 260 parents and carers, helping families and communities better understand the risks young people face online and equipping them with tools to stay safe. By combining prevention, education, and opportunity, the project seeks not only to protect children from recruitment today, but also to support them in imagining safer and more hopeful futures.