BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin joined high-level guests and expert speakers to launch an entirely re-thought and revised set of guidelines for ITU's Child Online Protection (COP) initiative, aimed at helping governments, industry, parents and educators keep children safer online.
The new guidelines recognize that while the explosion of digital platforms has created unprecedented opportunities for children and young people to communicate, connect, share, learn, access information and express their opinions on matters that affect their lives and their communities, wider and more easily available access to the Internet and mobile technology also poses significant challenges to children's safety – both online and offline.
The COVID crisis has only exacerbated these risks, with many children going online earlier than originally anticipated by their parents and guardians in order to connect to online learning platforms. Lack of supervision has also put vulnerable children at increased risk, as parents and guardians have struggled to combine their own work commitments with full-time home childcare and home schooling during the wave of global lockdowns.
Just over ten years after their first publication, the revised COP guidelines have been thoroughly re-thought, redesigned and re-written with the help of a multi-stakeholder expert working-group. The new guidelines recognize a multitude of risks, including the management of screen time and the protection of personal data and individual privacy, to cyber bullying and illegal online content such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM). They also include reflections on the special situation of children with disabilities, as well as issues around new technological developments such as the Internet of things, connected toys, online gaming, robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Special guests for the launch event included Her Majesty, Queen Silvia of Sweden, H.E. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications, Ghana, and Dr Johanna Rubinstein, CEO of Childhood Foundation USA. They were joined by Aditya Sharma, Youth Representative on Child Online Protection; Amanda Third, Western Sydney University; Olivia Solari, Child Rights Connect; John Carr, ECPAT International; Karl Hopwood, Insafe Network; Anjan Bose, UNICEF; David Wright, UK Safer Internet Center; Abdelaziz Alzerooni, Chair of the Council Working Group on Child Online Protection, UAE; and Bocar Ba, CEO, SAMENA Telecommunications Council.
Kicking off the online dialogue with expert speakers, Ms Bogdan-Martin observed that of the estimated 4.1 billion people online, one in three is a child. “As more and more children around the world gain access to the online world through their own smartphones, tablets and computers, it's clear that our collective efforts to protect them will increasingly need to focus on the virtual realm, as well as the physical one," she said. “Emerging technologies can certainly be part of the solution. But technology alone will not solve the problem. International cooperation will be critical. This urgent global challenge requires a global approach, intergovernmental collaboration and strong, multi-stakeholder cooperation."
She went on to emphasize the growing importance of bringing the voices of young people into discussions and debates. “When I took office at the start of last year as Director of Telecommunication Development, one of my first actions was to ask my team to begin work on a new youth strategy as part of my Bureau's regular ongoing work programme.
I believe we need to engage MUCH more proactively with young people. We need to hear their concerns. We need to understand the ways in which they are vulnerable. Children and youth need – and deserve – to be heard.
We know that young people don't interact with technology the same way that my own generation does. So for our policies to be effective, and targeted in the right places, the guidance and advice of youth will be indispensable."
