Workshop organisers : ECPAT International , eNACSO, News Corporation, European Commission-Safer Internet programme.
Background:
The need to address the abusive use of ICT in particular sexual harassment, abuse and exploitation of children, including child pornography has been identified in the action line C10 on ethical dimension of the information society. Child safety on the Internet is an issue that addresses several of the general themes of the IGF, namely security, openness, capacity building and multi-stakeholder cooperation. The goal of the workshop was to build upon the foundation established at the IGF in Rio de Janeiro where governments and civil society organized several workshops related to child safety and to move towards establishing a follow-up mechanism for ensuring such recommendations are implemented through actions. This workshop was also proposed to highlight successful initiatives that could reinforce the idea of multi-stakeholder co-operation and foster similar initiatives globally.
The multi-stakeholder forum brought together representatives of relevant sectors such as IT industry, civil society, international agencies of the society to discuss around the issue of protection of children online and to observe the progress made since the last meeting convened at the Rio IGF;
The workshop:
Total audience: 35+ participants representing ICT industry, academia, civil society etc.
Chair : Anjan Bose, ICT officer, ECPAT International
The workshop was focused on issues related to child safety online which highlighted: the experience of children in terms of their safety in the online environment; industry and civil society initiatives and action taken by various stakeholders to address online safety; presentation of specific conceptual and policy issues; assessment of specific gaps and action needed to address them. The workshop was organized under the IGF theme of security. Keeping in mind the multi-stakeholder nature of the forum, a diverse set of experts from leading agencies were invited to present their work and analysis of the situation in relation to protection of children from sexual exploitation online. Representatives from international NGOs, private sector and civil society shared their experience and interacted with an audience of interested IGF stakeholders holding substantive discussion on critical issues involving protection of children online.
Due to the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai, some of the originally proposed panelists could not turn up and were substituted by appropriate experts.
The presenters were:
Zoe Hilton, eNACSO
Larry Majid, Connect Safely ( Video presentation )
John Carr on behalf of News Corporation
Margareta Traung, European Commission
Thiago Tavares, Safernet Brazil
This workshop was one of the few organized in the Hyderabad meeting that dealt with the issue of protection of children in the online environment.
The Chair of the workshop presented the highlight of the outcome document in the context of child pornography from the recently held World Congress III in Rio de Janeiro on commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents and the call to the states to adopt a clear definition of child pornography in accordance with international standards, criminalize the production, distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography, including virtual images and the sexually exploitative representation of children, as well as the consumption, access and viewing of such materials where there has been no physical contact, extending legal liability to entities such as corporations and companies in case of responsibility for or involvement in the production and/or dissemination of such materials and also prioritising victim identification and support and care by specialized staff. Educational and awareness-raising actions focusing on children, parents, teachers, youth organizations and others working with and for children with a view to improving understanding of the risks of sexually exploitative use of the Internet, mobile telephones and other technologies including information for children on how to protect themselves, get help and report incidences of child pornography and online exploitation was highlighted. It was obvious from the various presentations that strong focus on educational and awareness raising mechanisms on chid online safety needs to be carried out and enhanced in places where they are already in place. eNACSO, the new network of child advocacy organisations working in Europe presented some emerging issues about how offenders are using more innovative ways of reaching and abusing children and how children themselves are putting themselves in risky situations where parents and guardians are completely clueless about their activities in the online space. Influencing Industry, Government, law enforcement and other agencies to engage in a solution was strongly recommended. Successful model of advocacy in the UK was also presented and model legislations that criminalised “Online grooming of children for sexual purposes” was highlighted. It was noted that the specialised response groups from the Law enforcement and the International nature of their work and collaboration was proving to be a very successful model. What came up very clearly was that the Social Networks should promote responsible behaviour among young people as they are creating as social space. The need for advocacy work to fight against child abuse images and mechanisms around blocking and removing such content was discussed. The video presentation from connect safely highlighted the relative change brought with the interactive and social web that we see now and how the young population engages in this space by also creating content and interacting through various ICT tools that are available. This puts them in various situations of risks and needs to be addressed as a multi disciplinary approach. Various factors that increase the risk of children being falling victim in the online environment was raised and highlighted. The social networking service Myspace presented their approach towards online safety by building blocks of partnerships and linking with education, technology, legal, policy and civil society including NGOs. Current work to make the Myspace portals safe and enhance the safety features were discussed which involved preventing access to inappropriate content and prevent unwanted contact. It was also discussed how algorithms developed by competing companies for such safety features can be shared and enhanced for reaching a common goal.
The European Commission’s Safer Internet programmes established in 1999, which worked towards an inclusive approach in bringing together all concerned stakeholders from industry to researchers, teachers, parents and NGOs active in child welfare and encouraged them to cooperate, exchange ideas, best practice and experience in order to empower and protect young people when using online and mobile technologies was presented. The Safer Internet Day, organized by INSAFE network was highlighted and demonstrated how collaboration with the relevant stakeholders help disseminate information and awareness to the masses. Shared activities and events were found to be very effective in spreading the message on Online safety. It was highlighted that the children should be protected during their active engagement with ICT usage such as mobile phones, but as they mature, they must be empowered to protect themselves from related risks. European Framework for Safer Mobile use by younger teenagers and children by leading mobile operators and content providers was presented which describes principles and measures to protect children that those companies who signed the agreement commit to implement on the national level through out Europe.
Safernet Brazil the Brazilian hotline, presented the issues that are being faced in Brazil in relation to the social Networks particularly the emergence of child abuse materials in such public forum. The signing of the MOU with Google to exchange information between the hotline and Google to effectively remove such profiles was presented and similar initiatives in other part of the world was encouraged.
Participants , particularly from the Indian audience expressed that the presentations and discussions opened up new areas that were unknown or little known to them and deliberated on how to expand on the forum for ongoing discussion on the issues that arose in the workshop and for follow up of the proposals that arose from the exchange. It was reemphasised, that the means to share discussion of relevant issues and sharing of information and experience in such work should be sustained to provide opportunities for expansion of child safety initiatives to a wider range of local contexts particularly to take advantage of the global representation in the participants of the IGF. Also it was clearly identified that child safety is a challenge that needs to be addressed by all IGF stakeholders, each of whom has clear lines of social responsibility