Remarks
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
10:00am, via video link from Asuncíon, Paraguay
Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden,
Executive Director of UNICEF Henrietta Fore
Excellencies,
Broadband Commission Working Group Co-Chairs Mr Scott Gegenheimer, and Dr Johanna Rubenstein,
Distinguished colleagues,
I am very pleased to join you today from Paraguay, where I am attending a series of regional meetings on strategies to bring more connectivity, and especially more meaningful connectivity, to the people of the Latin American region.
What do we mean by meaningful connectivity? The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development's State of Broadband 2019 report, released here in New York last week, emphasizes connectivity that is not just available, accessible, relevant and affordable, but that is also safe, trusted, user-empowering and leads to positive impact.
This new report by the Commission's Working Group on Child Online Safety specifically addresses those last four important points in relation to the internet users we care about the most – our own children, and grandchildren.
I am myself the mother of four very digitally-active teenagers. Like all parents, I have both welcomed the internet as an empowering force in my children's lives, and worried about its potential for harm.
The lives of this first generation of true digital natives are being profoundly shaped by the online world.
Our children have access to a vast store of information that no library could ever rival. They have new ways of sharing and connecting – with friends next door, and across the oceans. They have new platforms for creativity, and new channels to showcase their talents to an audience of millions.
But we also know that the internet has a dark side.
Inappropriate and unsafe content; online harassment, grooming and stalking; illicit soliciting of private data; unethical online marketing – these and other practices give us urgent cause for concern, because more and more children now have their own personal digital devices.
According to a 2016 study by the international research project 'Global Kids Online', 80% of connected children are now accessing the Internet via a portable smartphone or tablet. And around half of these young people are using their devices in situations where there is little or no parental supervision.
Children are also coming online at a much earlier age. OECD research reveals that in the US, 42% of children 8 years and under now own a tablet.
The amount of time our children are spending in front of their screens is also increasing. Back in 2015, PISA data already showed that teenagers were spending between two and a half to three hours a day online outside of school. That 2015 figure had already grown by an additional 40 minutes per day in just three years.
What this data show us is that there is a clear and urgent global need to work together to ensure that connectivity embellishes our children's experience of the world, rather than impairs it.
At ITU, we launched our global Child Online Protection initiative – or COP – ten years ago, with the support of over 50 governments, UN agencies, NGOs, private sector partners and industry bodies.
The COP Guidelines we prepared for 4 targeted audiences – teachers, industry, policy-makers and children themselves – remain a recognized benchmark in efforts to foster good behaviours that help keep children safe online.
Updates to these guidelines are now underway, with the inclusion of a number of new elements to reflect the fast-changing ICT landscape.
AI; robotics; connected toys; new social media platforms; and online misinformation campaigns are all on the agenda, along with behavioural issues like internet addiction and internet-linked anxiety disorders.
In addition, we are seeking to partner with specialist organizations who can help us enrich our guidelines by including a new focus on specific issues faced by children with disabilities, and children with special needs.
Today's report by the Broadband Commission Working Group on Child Online Safety, which has been so capably led over the past 12 months by Scott Gegenheimer and Johanna Rubenstein, is a welcome and valuable contribution to the global store of best practice on child safety online.
Through its multi-stakeholder approach, ITU's COP initiative has sought to create an internationally recognized and accessible roadmap for keeping connected children safe, spanning case studies and good practice, policy responses, and international initiatives.
I heartily welcome this major new contribution to that roadmap, and congratulate Scott, Johanna and the many members of the Working Group on their commitment, on their work on the report and the Declaration on the Child Online Safety Universal Declaration, and on their tireless advocacy to keep this important issue at the top of the ICT policy agenda.
Thank you.
