Chair or the Council Working Group on Child Online Protection,
Members
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is a great privilege to welcome you all to the 19th meeting of the ITU Council Working Group on Child Online Protection.
The online safety and well-being of our children is an area of great concern in this digital era.
Reality is, digital technology is now pivotal in shaping the lives of our children: influencing their growth, education, and social interactions.
However, spending more time online means more risk. This ranges from cyberbullying, misinformation, violent content, online harassment, invasion of privacy, trolling, and many more. Online platforms are struggling to deal with these scourges.
It does not stop there.
There is abundance of content that is abusive and exploitative of our young people, and other related cybersecurity risks.
We need to act.
Our mandate is clear.
ITU Resolution 179 represents a cornerstone of our commitment to Child Online Protection.
This resolution not only underscores our shared responsibility to foster a secure digital environment for our children.
It is also a call to action to the wider world. My message today is simple, but profound.
We want a safe online space for current and generations to come.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Our Global Program, Creating a safe and empowering cyber environment for children, which ITU launched in collaboration with the National Cybersecurity Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in August 2021, is now in its third year of implementation.
This morning, we also jointly released a complete set of online modules for training children and young people in an interactive way. These will help children gain insight on various online concerns and access resources that can help them deal with critical situations like online privacy, misinformation, disinformation or even online harassment.
The modules will be complimented by two innovative products that will enhance the learning experience through play. These two applications: Sango's Adventures - discover online safety and AskMe, your online safety friend, are not only interactive but also allow parents and caretakers to support the young people to safely navigate the online space.
We invite our members to roll out these products that are now freely available on our website, and share as widely as possible with children, young people, parents, care givers and educators, so that together we can expand the platforms to empower people online.
Allow me to reiterate our thanks to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for their contribution. Through these programmes, it is clear that intersectoral, collaborative and holistic approaches can achieve tremendous success.
I must also thank many partners that are contributing to policy development, capacity building, knowledge sharing, and collaboration at the global level.
The results speak for themselves as we witness, more harmonization of national frameworks, more national implementations taking place, and more capacity building in child online protection.
I invite you to take a moment during today's lunch break to explore how our comprehensive guidelines on Child Online Protection are being implemented in many countries.
You will find invaluable, practical, and actionable insights that are capable of supporting our collective vision.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Getting this right is a vital area of global, digital life.
We must act collectively, partner to protect and create confidence in the use of ICTs.
I invite you to partner with us through proactive involvement across our cybersecurity activities, contributing to policy perspectives and programme expansion through additional funding support.
Digital transformation has enormous opportunities for our young people. This is why a safer, trusted digital world is not only protective, but also enabling for future generations.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We must take online harm very seriously.
As I conclude,
Thank you for being an essential part of this vital effort.
Your work and the outcomes of this Council Working Group will impact many across the globe. I urge you to work tirelessly to make the digital world safe for our young people.
I wish you productive discussions.
Thank you!
