The presentation of the “SafeYOUth” application as an additional tool for the protection of minors from violence was made by the Minister of Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis, in an interview on the Alpha television station.

Analyzing all the steps and actions that have been developed for the prevention of juvenile delinquency and the protection of minors, Mr. Chrysochoidis referred to the police patrols in the large city squares.

“You will see, for example, in Kifissia, on a Friday, a Saturday night, thousands of young children of 13, 14 years old who are in the square. So there are police patrols there, with mainly female police officers who talk to the children. They also speak to them in a deterrent way,” he said. He then spoke of the five-digit telephone number 10201 “which is answered by trained police officers who are ready to deploy police forces and dispatch to any incident reported at the time”.

Especially for the application that was put into operation a few days ago, he said in detail: “SafeYOUth does two things. Firstly, it informs about issues of violence that either appear on the street or on the internet and secondly, it calls the police. With a push of a button, you download the app for free in the Apple store or the Play store, and then call the police with the button in the app. It has geolocation, that is, it has GPS and in a few minutes it is at the incident, which develops a police force to manage the incident.”

Finally, he announced a tightening of the provisions of the Criminal Code regarding the possession of knives and weapons by minors. As he characteristically said: “There are gangs of minors, which attack other minors and also knives, iron fists, weapons from 13-year-old children appear. These are unheard of things, which is why we are bringing a provision in a few days to the Parliament, where minors are prohibited from carrying, wherever they are, knives and a number of types of knives, which are circulating among us, are prohibited by law.”

He also referred to the issues of domestic violence, noting that “what we said after Agioi Anargyros {regarding the measures} for domestic violence, has come true and much more has been done and every week we publish all the evidence to there is transparency and the same in the issue of violence against minors.”

He concluded, in fact, by noting that “we must also look at ourselves in the mirror as a whole as a society, to see the issues of the behavior of minors, the issues of supervision and custody of our children, so that problems do not appear, which go beyond what we call confrontation between children or quarrels between children’.

He noted at the same time that both incidents of domestic violence, as well as the issue of violence against minors, “are not purely a police issue, they are social issues, which unfortunately have existed for centuries, but modern societies must deal with them effectively”. He also added that in 2019, when he had again assumed the position of Minister of Citizen Protection, the first structures for domestic violence had been created. As he said, then “there were annually 3,500 complaints, incidents. Today the incidents are 18,954, i.e. almost 19,000. They have increased about 6 times. This means that women speak up, trust the state, the police and report incidents. The one thing is this. Let me tell you that last night, we had 54 incidents, 42 arrests and let me tell you that in the 10th month of 2024, we have 11,300 arrests. Last year it was half that, 5,500.”

At this point he set two parameters. One concerns legislative issues and stated that the Minister of Justice is submitting to the Parliament a Bill that provides for stricter provisions for the perpetrators of incidents of domestic violence. While the second parameter concerns the social extension of the issues concerning the perpetrators of domestic violence episodes. He said in more detail that: “Some who relapse, are constantly violent, obviously have, among other things, mental problems, which need another kind of management, I mean medical management, there are drug users, there are alcohol users, those who are in daily basis, unfortunately dependent on alcohol. “Well, problematic personalities and all this, as you understand, also needs a social management”.

He noted, finally, that a number of other arrangements are being considered, so that both the penalties are increased and the penalties are also varied, so that the perpetrator is away from the victim and there is no chance of him coming back.