A/HRC/40/50 of age and older. To reach out-of-school children, collaboration was promoted with the community network of the National Council for Educational Development. Children expressed concern at the use of corporal punishment in the home, as well as at discrimination in schools, including against children with disabilities and from indigenous communities. 105. In 2015, the National Council for Children in Chile launched the Yo Opino initiative.27 This national consultation was conducted through the school system to collect the views of children between 4 and 18 years of age to inform policies and programmes. The results of the survey were presented to Congress, as well as to the 2017 high-level political forum on sustainable development. Children expressed strong concern at situations of poverty and violence and called for the promotion of respect for diversity and nondiscrimination, for children to enjoy freedom from verbal and physical punishment, and for violent practices, such as bullying and cyberbullying, to be strongly addressed. 106. In India, the organization Restless Development has focused on children’s empowerment to prevent child marriage. Youth-led advocacy and mobilization, and peerto-peer education and learning, were critical dimensions of this initiative, alongside data collection through a smartphone-based technology. The #KnotSoYoung campaign involved thousands of children and adolescents, and mobilized a network of youth leaders in significant child-centred community action and campaigns. These efforts placed special emphasis on girls’ education and awareness of their rights, providing them with the skills needed to stay in school; as a result, 10 villages declared themselves free of child marriage. 107. In Guatemala and Malawi, “Rise Up for Girls” was organized to tackle child marriage and gender-based violence. In both countries, the risks of early marriage, dropout from school by girls, and life-threatening health consequences of early pregnancy are high. Girls were involved in the identification of major concerns at every step of the process. In cooperation with traditional and local leaders, important results were achieved. In Malawi, over 10,000 girls supported the change of national legislation on child marriage, helping to ban this harmful practice in 184 communities. And in Guatemala, a group of girls led the process of creating a national violence observatory to report cases of violence against girls and women; over 700 girls have been referred. In both countries, the most used resources for participation were offline, due to the rural contexts within which the initiative was promoted, but social media were used to support communication and mobilization of girls. 108. These examples show a growing reliance on ICTs. In most cases, the use of digital tools was for data-collection purposes, while offline approaches were promoted to achieve change. Interestingly, children used these digital tools for continuous participation and to be active agents of change rather than only data providers. 109. Child participation models need to evolve according to the reality of children’s lives. And technological tools and developments need to respond to children’s growing experience and expectations as digital citizens. This is an area where further research is needed, both to seize the opportunities offered by ICTs and to prevent and address any associated risks, and to continue to strengthen the capacity and agency of children to genuinely access information and influence decision-making processes. This is an area that the Special Representative will continue to actively promote, including in the thematic report on violence against children, noted above. VI. Leaving no child behind – protecting children with disabilities from violence 110. Violence against children is widespread and pervasive. It affects children of all ages, takes place in all settings, and knows no geographic, social or cultural borders. It often starts early in life, and as children grow up, the risk of violence often becomes a continuum. 27 16 See www.creciendoconderechos.gob.cl/docs/Informe-nacional-Yo-Opino-es-mi-derecho2017_Final.pdf.