The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has unveiled a Child Online Protection (COP) global initiative.
The initiative involves a new phase of concrete activities for the union's COP programme. This phase will encourage the development of national COP centres, awareness campaigns and community forums to create a safe environment for young users of the Internet, according to the union.
It adds that the initiative will provide a framework for co-ordinating existing global efforts and implementing a series of safety training and prevention activities.
“The COP global initiative will build on guidelines developed by ITU and partners from industry, civil society, governments, UN agencies and other stakeholders.
“The announcement will see COP shift from the production of these guidelines to the development of industry codes of conduct; the establishment of national hotlines; the development of national roadmaps and legislative toolkits; training for parents, guardians and educators; and harnessing the power of multi-stakeholder collaboration through resources such as an online platform for sharing advice and information.”
The ITU also says the initiative will give regulators the tools to build on the experience of others in the development of national plans for protecting children online.
ITU secretary-general Hamadoun Tour'e said the COP campaign is moving from strategy to action with this initiative.
“The Internet reflects the diversity of global peoples and its many benefits include the potential to offer real development opportunities. However, in the march towards creating knowledge economies, we must not lose sight of the most vulnerable users of the Internet.”
The ITU says its Child Online Protection initiative was announced in November 2008 and aims to create a safe and secure online experience for children everywhere.
Shared war
International police organisation Interpol says enhanced use of technology to identify victims of child abuse and blocking access to Web sites containing abusive and violent images are not enough to ensure online child protection.
In line with the ITU's efforts, the organisation says information sharing and international co-ordination are crucial to fighting online child abuse.
The assistant director of Interpol's Trafficking in Human Beings unit, Jon Eyers, says there is a need for countries investigating online child abuse to communicate and work together.
Responsible parties
SA's Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) says, while it has committed itself to protecting children from inappropriate online content, it cannot behave as a watchdog as the law prohibits this.
It met with deputy home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba last month to discuss issues concerning the protection of children online. Gigaba has been spearheading a campaign to limit the distribution of pornography in SA, including printed and digital forms.
To aid this, Gigaba announced earlier this year that R15 million would be channelled to the Film and Publications Board (FPB) to fund educational advertisements on child pornography. He said he wanted to intensify the fight against child porn, and to protect children in general from porn in the mass media.
ISPs have been targeted in this campaign as the first line of defence to block child access to pornography and to stop the distribution of children being exploited in such images.
ISPA says that, although it is taking an active role in the fight against child pornography, its members should not become watchdogs tasked with protecting children from all online pornography.
"ISPA accepts that the relative ease with which minors in SA are able to access pornographic content online and offline is of concern to society. But it is important to remember that the challenge of dealing with this is a responsibility shared by a number of involved parties.”
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