Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General

ITU Council Working Group on Child Online Protection - Welcome remarks

10 October 2016, ITU Headquarters, Geneva

Excellencies,
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to be here with you today, and on behalf of the Secretary-General let me offer you a very warm welcome to all participants – both here and following us online.

I appreciate your continued support and commitment to this important Working Group on Child Online Protection.
As you many know, October is the European Union’s Cyber Security Month, the EU’s annual advocacy campaign. In order to commemorate this important event, and to leverage the efforts undertaken at the national and regional level, I am pleased that we are starting this meeting with a High Level Dialogue on Child Online protection co-organized by ITU and the Council of Europe with the kind participation of Ambassador Murat Adali, the Permanent Observer of the Council of Europe to the UN in Geneva, and Ambassador Carl Hallergard, Deputy Head of EU Delegation in Geneva, for participating in this session. Many thanks to you both for coming this morning.  
Today, child online safety is much higher on the political agenda, and has become a top priority for a wide variety of stakeholders, including businesses and financial institutions.

According to the ITU Measuring the Information Society Report, young people are almost twice as networked as the global population as a whole. In the developing countries digital natives are vigorously leading their nation's Internet use. Within the next five years, the digital native population will have more than doubled.

Promoting access to ICT is ITU's core mission. But at the same time as fostering greater access for everybody, we recognize the vital need to ensure that ICTs are used in a responsible and safe manner - especially for our younger generation. Therefore this Group has an important role in shaping the policies that will influence the next generation.

It is important to remember that the group is open to all relevant stakeholders and we believe that through partnership and by joining forces we can definitely strengthen the impact of our actions at the regional and global level.

Before concluding, let me draw your attention to the list of candidatures for Vice-Chairmen for the Council Working Groups and the Expert Group on ITRs, received by the deadline of 5th October posted on the Council website. The Secretary-General has now invited the regions to coordinate their proposals for candidatures by the end of the year.

So let me wish you a successful and productive meeting.

Thank you.