Page 14 - SAMENA Trends - September 2019

FULFILLING NATIONAL ICT VISIONS BY BUILDING TRUST IN THE INTERNET AND PROTECTING THE CONNECTED SAMENA TRENDS

Broadband Comission Report on Child Safety Online Launched at the UN

On October 1 2019, the co-chairs of the Broadband Commission stein, President & CEO of Childhood USA, and Zain Group CEO of
Working Group on Child Online Safety, Childhood USA and Zain Operations, Scott Gegenheimer who co-chair the working group.
Group, the leading mobile telecom innovator in eight markets
across the Middle East and North Africa, announced the A key point made in the report is that we need to prioritize child
publication of a new report on Child Online Safety: Minimizing the online safety, especially in anticipation of the expansion of the
Risk of Violence, Abuse and Exploitation Online. The report is a broadband in the developing world where most children live
collective effort and draws upon the expertise of the Braodband today. All the stakeholders, governments, regulators, operators,
Commissioners and experts from around the world. The report internet service providers, NGOs and civil society and academia
was presented at a high-level meeting at the UN, “Children & the have to join forces in implementing common strategies to make
Digital World: Threats and Opportunities”. Queen Silvia of Sweden, the internet safer for children in order to help prepare future
who founded Childhood twenty years ago, delivered a keynote generations to thrive in the digital space. These steps include
address. incorporating measures addressing child online protection in the
national broadband plans, ensuring that applications and services
Actionable recommendations for how to prioritize children’s are age-appropriate and safe per design, and that we deploy
online safety technology-driven solutions to improve child online safety.
Broadband connectivity brings many benefits to children, includ-
ing access to education and entertainment, it also has a dark side Necessity of taking action now
to it as it exposes children to major risks and threats online as Commenting on the publication of the report, Dr. Joanna
well as different forms of violence and exploitation, such as child Rubinstein said “Millions of children are online every day using
sexual exploitation and abuse, bullying and radicalization, among digital devices. They benefit from getting access to information,
other critical vulnerabilities. The new Child Online Safety report education and entertainment. However, they are also exposed to
gathers the available evidence on the scale and nature of the abuse and exploitation including sexual abuse, bullying and even
risks and harms children face online and provides actionable rec- radicalization. It is our duty to prevent this from happening and
ommendations for how to prioritize children’s online safety. The requires collective action. This report demonstrates the necessity
report was developed under the leadership of Dr. Joanna Rubin- of taking action now and sheds light on how we can take practical

14 SEPTEMBER 2019