At WSIS, ITU was entrusted by leaders of the international community with Action Line C5: “building confidence and security in the use of ICTs”. The WSIS outcomes also specifically recognized the needs of children and young people and their protection in cyberspace. The Tunis Commitment recognized “the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the protection of children and in enhancing the development of children” as well as the need to “strengthen action to protect children from abuse and defend their rights in the context of ICT”.

ITU’s Child Online Protection (COP) initiative is in line with its mandate to establish the foundations for a safe and secure cyberworld for future generations. The need for COP is clear. A decade ago, there were just 182 million people using the Internet globally — and almost all of them lived in the developed world. By early 2009, however, there were over 1.5 billion Internet users worldwide, and more than 400 million of them had access to broadband. With over 600 million users in Asia, 130 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 50 million in Africa, the Internet is a growing common resource — vastly increasing the dangers online, especially for children.

According to recent surveys, over 60 per cent of children and teenagers talk in chat rooms on a daily basis. Three in four children online are willing to share personal information about themselves and their family in exchange for goods and services. And one in five children will be targeted by a predator or paedophile each year. The COP initiative — an integral part of ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Agenda — was presented at the High Level Segment of ITU Council 2008, where it was endorsed by Heads of State, Ministers and heads of international organizations from around the world.

The theme of this year’s WTISD aims at ensuring that children can safely access the Internet and its valuable resources without fear of falling prey to unscrupulous predators in cyberspace.