The need to protect children online has never been so urgent as during the COVID crisis, with millions of additional children joining the online world for the first time. BDT Director, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, led a special session of Childhood USA's Summer Institute programme, focusing on the work of ITU and the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development in child online safety.
Featuring almost 30 top-level special guests and speakers including United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and representatives from the technology industry, international agencies including ITU, UNICEF, the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, and the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, academic institutions, civil society and international media, the programme welcomed a diverse group of 15-19 year-old Institute Scholars who connected virtually with experts over a period of five weeks with the aim of developing their own role in safeguarding children on- and offline. Sessions emphasized the need for multi-stakeholder collective action to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 16.2: to end all forms of violence against children by 2030.
Leading her session during Week 3: “Global & Local Governance", Ms Bogdan-Martin outlined the vital work of ITU in connecting the world, since its earliest days coordinating international telegraph communications to cutting edge work on new standards and agreements around 5G, and the vital importance of digital inclusion to connect the remaining 3.6 billion to the power of the internet.
“Connecting the unconnected has taken on a new urgency in the light of COVID, because in our increasingly interconnected economies, digital is everywhere. We don't just rely on the internet in our daily lives, but each and every economic sector worldwide relies on online connectivity to support its business processes. So it is all too easy to imagine a world, not too far into the future, where digital exclusion could equal near-total social, civic and economic exclusion," she warned.
She went on to highlight ITU's work on Child Online Protection, including the recent launch of fully revised guidelines for industry, policymakers, parents and educators, and children themselves, assisted by ITU's Fanny Rotino.
Anna Polomska, who serves as overall coordinator of the work programme of the Broadband Commission, joined the discussion to give an overview of the important work of the Commission's Working Group on Child Online Safety, which released its outcome report last year. “The COVID pandemic has only exacerbated the risks," said Ms Polomska. “UNICEF estimates that the pandemic has caused around 1.6 billion children to be kept out of school because of lockdown measures. For those lucky enough to have connectivity, that has meant going online for classes. Unfortunately, cybercriminals who prey on children have been quick to spot the opportunity to target the many millions of children joining the online world for the first time, who are unaware of the risks," she added.
The BDT Director wound up the session with a quick preview of the Giga partnership between ITU, UNICEF and others to connect every school in the world, and of ITU's new Youth Strategy, which acknowledges the vital voice of youth in global discussions about leveraging digital to create 'the world we want'.
“For youth to benefit from the transformative power of digital technologies and platforms, they must be equipped with a range of digital skills and have affordable access to connectivity," said Ms Bogdan-Martin. ITU's new Youth Strategy, now in development, is aligned with the vision and objectives of the United Nations Youth Strategy: Youth 2030 – working with and for young people. Built around a 3-pronged approach based on the principles of EMPOWER, ENGAGE, and PARTICIPATE, the new youth strategy aims to ensure full economic, social and digital inclusion of youth, so they substantively contribute to, participate in and benefit from social and economic development. A Youth World Telecommunication Development Conference, held just before the WTDC in November 2021, will ensure global youth have the chance to input to ITU discussions and debates around the best ways to leverage the power of digital technologies to accelerate progress towards the SDGs.
