UN publish guidelines for child online protection

Child online safety has become a great issue of concern with parents, regulators and welfare groups in recent times. Last month, UK telecom regulator, Ofcom  published parental control guides to protect children from online threats.

Recently, the UN’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) released guidelines for parents, guardians and educators to fight against cybercrime and cyber threats. The guidelines drafted by regulators, welfare groups and the industry would be reviewed and updated every year, it was stated.

ITU says that more than 1.5 billion people access internet and by contrast, 7,500 times less people used internet ten years ago. As for the number of  the children who currently access internet, it should be significant in developed nations where internet access is available in schools.

The survey also shows that 93 per cent of US teenagers regularly go online while 30 per cent of the teenagers in South Korea spend at least two hours a day in surfing the net.

Social networking sites which help interaction over internet often become places for the adolescents to indulge in cyber-bullying. The Telegraph quotes Rachel O’Connell, chief security officer for social networking site Bebo as saying:

“Cyber-bullying is often committed by a child’s friends and the child is also sometimes the bully, so that has fundamentally altered how we perceive the risks,”

ITU survey also shows that 72 % of children in France  go online without any supervision from parents or guardians. In China, nearly half (44%) of the children who went online, had been approached by a stranger which clearly indicates children are quite vulnerable to abuse.

According to Najat M’jid Maala, a UN expert on child abuse, there are over 750,000 sexual “predators” were online trying to contact with children.

ITU’s recent guidelines suggest using all kinds of measures such as law, education and online filters to save children from online threats. While the parents should take all the precautions to protect their children, however, the best way to tackle this critcal issue is to educate children themselves, according to Dieter Carstensen of campaign group, Save the Children.

Welfare groups like Britain’s Internet Watch Foundation also stress the need for sharing experience among the parent groups to prevent child abuse online.

Jim Gamble, Chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) has also indicated that many parents are quite reluctant to get online advice on this issue. He advises  the parents to use the available internet resources to protect their children from online abuse. (Read this article)

You can view the ITU’s child online safety guidelines here.