The sad reality that simply can't be ignored is that the Internet is now the biggest hunting ground for predators, pornography pushers, cyber bullies and even those who steal information breaching security.
"Even more concerning," says Deborah Taylor Tate, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission, US, "the threat is no longer contained to the family computer. It is in the palm of your child's hand. Given the fact that approximately 60% of American teens have a cell phone, and that cell phones are being marketed to children as young as 6, I have, and will continue to challenge U.S. telecom carriers to adopt initiatives to provide curriculum and education regarding safe use of their products - including Internet safety, and the prevention of access to inappropriate websites by children."
Recognizing that a concerted global effort is now required to ensure that the cyberworld becomes a safe place for young people to work, learn and play, ITU, the United Nations agency for information and communication technologies, launched a new initiative last week called the The Child Online Protection (COP) initiative. This aims to safeguard children whom ITU considers the most vulnerable users of the Internet.
"The COP will be a platform for global cooperation," says a spokesperson of the ITU and will aim to coordinate global efforts behind protecting children online and make them more effective and accessible.
Indeed, the Internet may still be a virtual world for the adults but for the millions of children around the world for whom it has become a ubiquitous aspect of their daily lives, it is also a very real world full of dangerous, inappropriate and often illegal content.
Online child exploitation has emerged as a particularly serious problem - and challenging as well - because predators use both technical and social means to mask their identity and intent. Compounding the problem is that there's a disturbing gap between what parents think and children know.
For instance, says ITU, while 92% of parents say they have established rules for their children's online activity, 34% of children say their parents haven't.These patterns are consistent across the world. In France, for example, 72% of children surf online alone, and while 85% of parents know about parental control software, only 30% have installed it.
According to ITU, COP's key objectives are to:
- identify key risks and vulnerabilities to children in cyberspace
- create awareness of the issues
- develop/promote practical tools to minimize risk
- share knowledge and experience
- facilitate international partnerships
But, says ITU, "since ITU is a global focal point for governments and the private sector, COP will also coordinate the many aspects of online security and getting agreement on how to tackle the complex of technologies and cultural viewpoints."
Still, an important question that one might ask is, what was a the need of a another imitative when almost all global organizations as powerful as ITU as well as many large companies and governments around the world run parallel initiatives.
Consider these: just three weeks back, the European Parliament voted to set aside 55 million euros to create the EU Safer Internet program, which will promote awareness among children,
parents and teachers of how to stay safe online. The Ministry of Japan is issuing notices urging parents and schools to limit internet-accessible cell phones to children. They have recommended that Japanese cell phone manufacturers include GPS in every phone, and limit children's phones to talk capabilities only.
Similarly in Brazil, the Senate created a Special Investigation Committee (CPI) to inquire into pedophilia, cybercrime, and any possible links to organized crime. While in New Zealand, there's NetSafe that has produced a program called "Hector's World," for New Zealand, Australian, and UK audiences. This program targets children 2-10 with animated characters teaching positive lessons about online safety.
In addition to the government and law enforcement initiatives, private sector efforts by Intel, Microsoft, Nokia, Verizon and loads of others are also running online child protection programs.
"COP is different in the sense that it is only imitative that aims to address online protection for children on a global basis," says ITU. "While there are many established projects and programs in developed countries to protect children online, there are very few in the developing world."
"Moreover, ITU's core work is to produce standards, so this initiative aims to bring interoperability to all similar initiatives globally," adds the ITU spokesperson.
Along with UN agencies, other organizations have come forward to support the initiative include eWWG, a consortium of 37 international companies and universities. Companies like Intel, Microsoft and Telecom Italia have also pledged their support. Organizations, such as the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the GSM Association have joined in as well, and so have international cops like INTERPOL, International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, and Save The Children.
Photo by Tanya Ryno. Creative Commons License Attribution 2.0 Generic
