BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin gave welcoming remarks to 17th meeting of ITU's Council Working Group on Child Online Protection (WG-COP). The WG-COP aims to exchange views and promote and work on child online protection, and it reports annually to the ITU Council.
Ms Bogdan Martin stated, ''The COVID crisis has shown us that we urgently need better international and national legal frameworks, norms and concrete child online protection policies, so that we can better coordinate and strengthen international cooperation around this burning issue.''
ITU released updated Child Online Protection (COP) guidelines in 2020, just as more and more young people were being pushed on to the internet amidst worldwide lockdowns. Ms Bogdan-Martin mentioned that these guidelines—for policy makers, industry, children and parents— represent a solid starting point to support national efforts and stimulate international dialogue.
She described that the new guidelines are designed to serve as a blueprint that can be adapted and used by different countries and stakeholders in a way that is consistent with national and local customs and laws. They also strive to strike a necessary balance between the need for protection and the need for greater participation by, and empowerment of, children and youth.
''We need to consult, listen and hear from our youth. We need to understand their challenges and demands, to ensure that we develop and deliver effective and relevant measures that respond to those challenges,'' she said.
Ms Bogdan-Martin thanked all of ITU's COP partners for their efforts and support. In particular, she highlighted the agreement signed between ITU and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia just last month in December 2020, on a global COP implementation project.
Underlining the importance of capacity building and skills development for a range of different constituencies— from children and their parents, to educators and policy-makers— she concluded by saying, ''I know that, working together, we can make the world a better place for all children, both online and offline.''
