• Worldwide initiatives on the occasion of WTISD 2009
  
  

This will not only lead to the building of a more inclusive information society, but will also enable Member States to meet their obligations towards protecting and realizing the rights of children as laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by UN General Assembly resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989.

We invite you to consider organizing programmes in your country to mark WTISD 2009 with a focus on the theme of Protecting Children in Cyberspace. It would be useful to involve all sections of society to formulate awareness and consensus on the issues underlying the theme.

In order to address issues related to protecting children in cyberspace, ITU calls upon Member States to:
 

• Create public awareness on the issues related to protecting children in cyberspace and to identify policies, best practices, tools and resources for adaptation/use in their countries.
  Call for action: ITU Member States and Sector Members are encouraged to actively participate in ITU events to enhance cybersecurity and protect children in cyberspace and, where possible, provide experts and resources in order to share experience and best practices for mainstreaming cybersecurity in their policies, regulations and laws.
   
• Support ongoing work aimed at developing Guidelines on protecting children online for policy makers and regulators.
  Call for action: ITU Member States and Sector Members are encouraged to participate in ITU activities, in particular to support ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Agenda and the COP initiative.
   
• Identify risks and vulnerabilities to children in cyberspace as the Internet and other online resources continue to expand.
  Call for action: ITU Member States and Sector Members are encouraged to partner with ITU, share experiences and contribute experts and resources to develop practical tools to help minimize risk to children.
   
• Build resource repositories for common use
  Call for action: ITU Member States and Sector Members are encouraged to share knowledge and experience while facilitating international strategic partnerships to define and implement concrete initiatives in protecting children online.
   
• Promote capacity building aimed at strengthening global response in protecting children as they venture into cyberspace.
  Call for action: ITU Member States and Sector Members are requested to build expertise and develop alerting mechanisms to tackle the growing threats to children as they browse the Internet and access information online.