Your Excellency Hamadoun Toure, Secretary General of the ITU,
Your Excellencies Ministers of ITU Member States,
Distinguished Councillors,
Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of UNICEF, I wish to express our appreciation to Dr Touré and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), for the amiable invitation to address the High-Level Segment of the 2008 ITU Council.

This is a welcome opportunity to say a few words on what can be done and what should be done to develop a child-friendly cyberspace and protect our most valuable resources: Our Children.

Access to information is a human right and a child’s right. It plays an important role in enabling the full participation of children and young people in society, and facilitating the adoption of life-enhancing pro-social behaviors and values. The child/media relationship is an entry point into the wide and multifaceted world of children and their rights - to education, freedom of expression, play, identity, health, dignity and self-respect, protection - and that in every aspect of child rights, in every element of the life of a child, the relationship between children and the media plays a role.

Within the world of media, the World Wide Web is an exciting place for inquisitive young minds and it does not take long for children to acquire the skills needed to go online. The Internet provides children with new ways to express themselves, learn and build friendships.

However, without proper precautionary measures, cyberspace can be a potentially threatening environment in which children and young people can be exposed to hate messages, sexually explicit material, graphic violence and even predators who roam chat rooms in search of innocent prey.

Young people surfing the Internet are also vulnerable to exploitative marketing. They may be persuaded to engage in activities that could have negative legal or financial consequences, such as giving out a parent's credit card number. Buying and selling of information about children by direct marketers and information brokers is a profitable business.

Research suggests that as many as one in five children who use computer chat rooms have been approached over the Internet by pedophiles. The problem will likely increase as a growing number of children gets access to the Internet worldwide.

Child pornography, sexual exploitation of children on-line, and other threats to a child’s physical and mental integrity are receiving increasing attention. The groundbreaking UN Study on Violence against Children, which was presented in October 2006, indicated that the scope of the problem seems to be expanding and that at least part of the solution is technical – for example using better screening or imprints and unique identifiers, or using blocking mechanisms. But there is also a part of the solution which relates to raising awareness among children and adolescents themselves, as well as among their parents and care givers, and those who work with children.

Better information about the extent of the problem is utterly needed, and needs to be disaggregated in such a way so as to enable precise analyses of the determinants. This in turn can help ensure that policy makers, regulatory services, organizations and individuals working for children, media professionals at all levels including media owners, parents, teachers and researchers all make better informed decisions and step up their efforts to reduce the risks faced by children as a result of new technologies.

The upcoming World Congress III against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents will take place in Rio de Janeiro at the end of this month. ITU and many other partners are participating in this event. The Congress will draw attention to the fate of sexually exploited children and will bring together Governments, civil society, and children themselves to look at what has worked and what hasn’t and why the problem seems to be getting worse. As some of you might know, two previous World Congresses were held in 1996 in Stockholm and 2001 in Yokohama. We will take stock in Brazil of progress made, identify successful initiatives, and design strategies which will allow us to reduce the exploitation of children more effectively in the future.

UNICEF welcomes ITU’s efforts to strengthen the protection of children by identifying the key risks and vulnerabilities to children in cyberspace; creating awareness of the risks; developing practical tools to help governments, organizations and educators minimize risks; and by sharing knowledge and experience within the framework of strategic international partnerships to define and implement concrete initiatives. UNICEF applauds the involvement of the private sector in this initiative, and encourages the development of sustainable and productive public-private partnerships which allow the private sector in particular to participate as more than a donor or silent partner.

Ending sexual exploitation of children and violence against children more broadly are part of UNICEF’s core mandate. Protecting children from abuse and violence is closely linked to the achievement of the MDG’s. Partnerships are critical for succeeding in this apparently “uphill” battle. On behalf of UNICEF, I look forward to seeing the protection of children become stronger in the virtual world as well as in the real world and there is little doubt that drawing on key partners and expertise to work together, is the main way that we will get it done.

Thank you for your kind attention