1. Guidelines for Industry on Child Online Protection
ICTS AND VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN:
MINIMISING RISKS AND RELEASING POTENTIAL
Expert Consultation, Costa Rica, 9-10 June 2014
Clara Sommarin, Child Protection Specialist Exploitation and Violence
UNICEF Headquarters

2. UNICEF Child Protection Strategy and ICTs
Create greatest possible opportunity for all children to take advantage of the benefits offered by ICTs, minimizing risks and potential harm
Balance the right to protection from all forms of violence, abuse and exploitation with the right to information, freedom of expression and association, privacy and non-discrimination
Requires a multi-stakeholder and sectorial approach: collaboration with governments, parliamentarians, civil society, the private sector, professionals working with children, parents and children themselves
Four strategic areas should underpin national and international response:
Empowering children and enhancing resilience to harm
Preventing impunity for abusers
Reducing availability and access to harm
Promoting the recovery of children exposed to harm

3. UNICEF Child Protection Strategy and ICTs
Increasingly UNICEF country offices address children’s use of ICTs
Strategies to address ICT related violence and exploitation must be part of wider national strategies to address violence, exploitation and abuse taking place through other modalities. Focus on:
Strengthening national child protection systems to support prevention and service response to violence, exploitation and abuse facilitated through ICTs
Laws, policies, regulations and comprehensive services for all abused/exploited children, across all social sectors - justice, social welfare, education, health and the ICT sector
Support norms, attitudes and behaviors that prevent violence and exploitation
Promoting positive, protective norms and behaviours working with communities, parents, teachers, children and industry

4. Child online protection and participation
© UNICEF/NYHQ /OLIVIER ASSELIN
Date of Presentation
Child online protection and participation

5. CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN THE “VIRTUAL” WORLD
The response needs to strike a balance between the right to protection and the right to participation.
Privacy
Freedom of expression
Education
Non-discrimination
Access to Information
Play and leisure
The private sector’s response needs to strike a balance between the right to protection from all forms of violence, sexual abuse and exploitation, and the rights to information, freedom of expression, privacy and non-discrimination, as laid down in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is unlikely ever to be possible to remove all the risks to children that exist in the online environment. Moreover, beyond a certain point, attempting to do so could threaten the very essence of the Internet and its multiple benefits
Respect/support framework: Companies should make sure they are complying with legislation and make sure they are not causing adverse impacts. However, there is growing consensus that industry should not only tackle problems around child online safety but should also proactively promote digital citizenship and help to facilitate children’s positive use of ICTs in ways that promote their rights to education, play and leisure and culture.
Protection from violence
Culture
Protection from sexual abuse and exploitation
Recreation 5

6. Internet & associated technologies
WHICH COMPANIES HAVE RESPONSIBILITY?
Companies that offer Internet and associated technologies
Internet & associated technologies
Internet services providers
Mobile operators
Internet in public spaces
Content providers
Online retailers
Apps developers
Social media
There are a range of companies that fall within the category of Internet and associated technologies that all have responsibilities towards child online protection.
There are also companies that have responsibilities towards child online protection that are NOT necessarily ICT companies, but that provide products or services that make use of online activity.
There is an increasing trend towards vertical integration. More and more companies are offering their customers a number of options to take advantage of array of devices, software and services. They need to consider a whole range of child protection issues, and at the same time collaborate with each other to tackle these challenges.
Hard-ware

7. Inappropriate conduct Inappropriate contact
CHILD RIGHTS RISKS
Children can be victims, receivers, participants and initiators of risky online behaviour.
Child sexual abuse
Recorded images of children subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation
Inappropriate
content
Exposure to violent or adult content
Exposure to content that promotes self-harm
Inappropriate conduct
Cyberbullying
Self-exposure, sexting
• Inappropriate content – Children may stumble upon questionable content while searching for something else by clicking a presumably innocuous link in an instant message, blog or when sharing files. Children may also seek out and share questionable material. What is considered harmful content varies from country to country, yet examples include content that promotes substance abuse, racial hatred, risk-taking behaviour or suicide, anorexia, violence, etc.
• Inappropriate conduct – Children and adults may use the Internet to harass or exploit other people. Children may sometimes broadcast hurtful comments or embarrassing images or may steal content or infringe on copyrights.
• Inappropriate contact – Both adults and young people can use the Internet to seek out children or other young people who are vulnerable. Frequently, their goal is to convince the target that they have developed a meaningful relationship but the underlying purpose is manipulative. They may seek to persuade the child to perform sexual or other abusive acts online - using a webcam or other recording device, or they will try to arrange an in-person meeting and physical contact. This process is often referred to as ‘grooming’.
Inappropriate contact
Grooming
Other
Predatory e-commerce (privacy, subscription terms, advertising, etc)
Internet addiction

8. OPPORTUNITIES TO PROMOTE CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
Companies can facilitate children’s positive use of ICTs.
Article 13 of the CRC
The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.
Internet technologies can help children to:
Express their opinions and views
Bring forward problems and needs
Demand government accountability
Access information about their rights
Access educational content and job opportunities
Innovate and create solutions
Participate in digitized social functions
Companies can emphasize the Internet’s capacity to facilitate the positive engagement of children and young people in broader civic life and in contributing towards finding solutions to global challenges. This should also reinforce Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child articulates that “The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.” 

9. ITU/UNICEF GUIDELINES FOR INDUCTRY ON CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION
The Guidelines outline five key areas for protecting and promoting children’s rights in the online environment
Policies and management processes
Child sexual abuse material
Safer and age appropriate environment
Educate children, parents and teachers
Promote positive use of ICTS
Integrate children’s rights in policies and management processes
Develop processes for handling child sexual abuse material
Develop safer and age appropriate online environments
Educate children, parents and teachers on children’s safety
Promote digital technology as a mode to further civic engagement
The Child Online Protection (COP) Initiative is a multi-stakeholder initiative launched by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to promote awareness of child safety in the online world and to develop practical tools to assist governments, industry and educators. As part of the initiative, in 2009 ITU published a set of four COP Guidelines for Children, Parents, Guardians and Educators, Industry, and Policy Makers. The Guidelines for Industry on Child Online Protection aimed at establishing the foundation for safer and more secure use of Internet-based services and associated technologies for today’s children and future generations. In response to substantial advances in technology and convergence, ITU, UNICEF and the COP partners have developed and updated the guidelines for the broad range of companies that develop, provide or make use of telecommunications or related activities in the delivery of their products and services.
For more information, see, ITU ‘Child Online Protection’,
Purpose of document is to provide:
A blueprint that can be adapted locally for various industry players
Establish a benchmark for recommended actions
Guidance on identifying, preventing and mitigating risks
Guidance on supporting children’s rights

10. COP INITIATIVE PARTNERS
The process to revise the Guidelines was led by ITU and UNICEF along with business, civil society and government representatives –
Broad consultative process with stakeholders in 2013

11. ITU/UNICEF CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION GUIDELINES
Policies and management processes
Child sexual abuse material
Safer and age appropriate environment
Educate children, parents and teachers
Promote positive use of ICTS
Allocate responsibility to senior staff
Develop a child protection/safeguarding policy and/or integrate online risks and opportunities into other relevant policies
Integrate due diligence on child online protection issues into assessment processes and identify impacts on different age groups
Consult key stakeholders, including children and young people, on online safety mechanisms for guidance/feedback
Establish grievance, remedy and reporting mechanisms
Exact wording from the Guidelines:
Ensure that responsibility is held by a specific individual and/or a team that has access to the necessary internal and external stakeholders. Provide this person/team with the authority to take the lead in raising the profile of child online protection across the company.
Develop a child protection/safe guarding policy and/or integrate specific child rights risks and opportunities into companywide policy commitments (i.e. human rights, privacy, marketing and relevant codes of conduct).
Integrate due diligence on child online protection issues into existing human rights or risk assessment frameworks (e.g. at the product or technology level or at the country level) to determine whether the business may be causing or contributing to adverse impacts through its own activities, or whether adverse impacts may be directly linked to its operations, products or services by its business relationships.
Identify child rights impacts on different age groups as a result of company operations and the design, development and introduction of products and services – as well as opportunities to support children’s rights.
Draw upon internal and external expertise and consult with key stakeholders, including children, on child online safety mechanisms to obtain ongoing feedback and guidance on company approaches.
Ensure access to remedy by putting in place operational level grievance and reporting mechanisms for any child rights violations (e.g. child sexual abuse material, inappropriate content or contact, breaches of privacy, etc.)

12. ITU/UNICEF CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION GUIDELINES
Policies and management processes
Child sexual abuse material
Safer and age appropriate environment
Educate children, parents and teachers
Promote positive use of ICTS
Put in place procedures to ensure compliance under local/international laws
Use customer terms and conditions to state company’s position on misuse
Develop notice and take down processes for reporting of CSAM
Collaborate with local or national
law enforcement and national
hotlines
Exact wording from the Guidelines:
Put in place internal procedures to ensure compliance under local and international laws on combating child sexual abuse material. When national regulations do not provide sufficient protection, companies should seek to go above and beyond the national regulations and they should use their leverage where necessary to lobby for legislative changes to enable industry to take steps to combat child sexual abuse material.
Use customer terms and conditions and/or acceptable use policies to explicitly state the company’s position on the misuse of its services to store or share child sexual abuse material and the consequences of any abuse.
Develop notice and take down (NTD) and reporting processes that allow users to report child sexual abuse material or inappropriate contact and the specific profile/location where it was discovered. Ensure a process is in place to act on those reports, and agree on procedures to capture evidence and remove abusive content. If companies are operating in markets with less developed regulatory and law enforcement oversight of these issues, companies can refer reporters to the International Association of Hotlines at where any of the international hotlines can be selected to make a report.

13. ITU/UNICEF CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION GUIDELINES
Policies and management processes
Child sexual abuse material
Safer and age appropriate environment
Educate children, parents and teachers
Promote positive use of ICTS
Employ technical measures: age-verification, block/allow lists, spend/time controls, filtering, and opt-out
Communicate clear house rules
Classify content in line with national
standards
Set heightened default privacy settings
Offer reporting tools and processes
Align with relevant marketing regulations
Promote national support services for children
Exact wording from the Guidelines:
Employ appropriate technical measures – such as parental control tools, age differentiated experiences password-protected content, block/allow lists, purchase/time controls, opt-out functions, filtering and moderating – to prevent underage access and exposure to inappropriate content or services. Where possible consider the use of age verification to limit access to content or material which, either by law or policy, is intended only for persons above a certain age. At the same time, companies should recognize the potential for misuse of such technologies in ways which could restrict children’s right to freedom of expression and access to information.
In addition to the terms and conditions, communicate clear rules in accessible and easily understood language, emphasizing what behaviour is and is not acceptable on the service, particularly for young users and for their parents and caregivers. Be sure to state the consequences of breaking any of these rules.
Ensure that content and services that are not age-appropriate for all users are classified in line with national expectations, are consistent with existing standards in equivalent media, are marked with prominent display options to control access, and are offered together with age verification, where possible.
Adapt and implement heightened default privacy settings for collection, processing, storage, sale and publishing of personal data, including location-related information and browsing habits, gathered from people under 18. Personal information should not be used for purposes not originally intended, nor used for marketing and advertising purposes without the consent of parents or legal guardians. Default privacy settings and information about the importance of privacy should be appropriate to the age of the users and the nature of the service.
Offer clear reporting tools and develop process to act on reports of inappropriate content, contact and misuse, and provide detailed feedback to service users on the reporting process.
Align business practices with relevant regulations and advice on marketing and advertising to children. Monitor where, when and how children may encounter potentially harmful advertising messages intended for another market segment.
Promote national support services that enable children to report and seek support in the case of abuse or exploitation (see, for example, Child Helpline International:
Ask.FM Case study:
A few months ago, there was a case in the UK of a 14-year old teenager that committed suicide and hung herself because she was bullied on the social networking site Ask.fm. After her death, her fafther had found a number of posts on her page telling her to die.
view all reports within 24 hours
make the report button more visible
include bullying and harassment as a category for a report.
Hire more staff, including a safety officer, to moderate comments on the site and provide adequate training
Raise the visibility of a function to opt out of receiving anonymous questions
Limit the number of features unregistered users were able to access, and require an address upon sign-up for registered users
Microsoft Windows 8: Monitor First approach
All you have to do is create a Windows user account for each child, check the box to turn on Family Safety, and then review weekly reports that describe your children’s PC use. No additional downloads, installation wizards, or configuration steps are required. Just check the box!
The “monitor first” approach
In the past, many of the industry software solutions for family safety (including Microsoft’s) focused on web filtering and other software-based restrictions.
Activity reporting, which is on automatically in the new Family Safety, is the perfect solution for many parents. However, if you like more control, you can set up more powerful and customizable restrictions directly from links in the activity reporting , or on familysafety.microsoft.com, if needed.

14. ITU/UNICEF CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION GUIDELINES
Policies and management processes
Child sexual abuse material
Safer and age appropriate environment
Educate children, parents and teachers
Promote positive use of ICTS
Clearly describe content and parental controls in accessible language
Educate customers to manage concerns on Internet usage
Set up mechanisms and educate parents to be involved
Work in collaboration with government and educators
Provide materials for use in schools and homes
Exact wording from the Guidelines:
Clearly describe available content and corresponding parental controls or family safety settings. Make language and terminology accessible, visible, clear and relevant for all users – including children, parents and caregivers – especially in relation to terms and conditions, costs involved in using content or services, privacy policies, safety information and reporting mechanisms.
Educate customers on how to manage concerns relating to Internet usage – including spam, data theft and inappropriate contact such as bullying and grooming – and describe what actions customers can take and how they can raise concerns on inappropriate use.
Set up mechanisms and educate parents to become involved in their children’s ICT activities, particularly those of younger children, for example, providing parents with the ability to review children’s privacy settings and with information on age verification.
Collaborate with government and educators to build parents’ abilities to support and speak with their children about being responsible digital citizens and ICT users.
Based on the local context, provide materials for use in schools and homes to educate and enhance children’s use of information and communication technologies and help children develop critical thinking that enables them to behave safely and responsibly when using ICT services.
Examples:
Yahoo:
Yahoo also provides materials for parents to share with their children. Check out the poster for key safety tips to discuss with your kids. Parents looking for a friendly character to guide their child through Internet perils and safeguards will like Faux Paw, the technocat, from iKeepSafe. In a three-video series, Faux Paw learns how to use information safely online, deal with cyberbullying, and overcome an Internet addiction
Yahoo also provides materials for lessons and curricula for teachers. Faux Paw the Websurfing Techno Cat series has been created by a team of leading child psychologists, educators, and law enforcement. This engaging curriculum—complete with books, animated DVDs, and lesson plans—will captivate the attention of your students and teach them how to appropriately conduct themselves online and in the digital space. Take advantage of these proven and valuable assets in your classroom today.
Vodafone: Digital parenting:
The Digital Parenting website and magazines offer parents information and advice about the latest digital technologies and the kind of challenges children and teenagers might face in their digital world. Our Expert View articles, ‘How to’ guides and Take Action checklists will help you to stay up-to-date and feel more confident about getting involved.

15. ITU/UNICEF CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION GUIDELINES
Policies and management processes
Child sexual abuse material
Safer and age appropriate environment
Educate children, parents and teachers
Promote positive use of ICTS
Prevent over blocking of content
Develop content that promote children’s rights to express themselves
Develop educational platforms
Promote digital literacy, capacity building, and ICT skills
Support government priorities and civil society on ICT access
Exact wording from the Guidelines:
Establish written procedures that ensure consistent implementation of policies and processes that protect freedom of expression for all users, including children, as well as documentation of compliance with these policies.
In order for filtering and parental controls to provide balanced protection and ensure, it is important that they are age appropriate. These tools should be consistent and transparent in the way they filter content. Good filtering tools should be effective, easy to use and where possible, enable parents to customize settings. The overblocking or underblocking of legitimate, developmentally appropriate content should be kept to a minimum. Where this occurs, there should be a process for reporting inadvertent blocking. This should be available to all consumers, including webmasters. Any reporting process, regardless of the platform (ISPs, mobile operators and online service providers) should provide clear, responsible, and adjudicated terms of services.
Develop online platforms that promote children’s right to express themselves; facilitate participation in public life; and encourage collaboration, entrepreneurship and civic participation.
Develop educational content for children to be distributed through media and schools that encourages learning, creative thinking, and problem solving
Promote digital literacy, capacity building and ICT skills to equip children, particularly children in rural and underserved areas, to utilize ICT resources and fully participate safely in the digital world.
Collaborate with local civil society and government on national/local priorities for expanding universal and equitable access to information and communication technologies, platforms and devices – and the underlying infrastructure to support them.
Examples:
O2 learn:
 Campus Party: Campus Party  is an annual week long, 24-hours-a-day technology festival where thousands of “campuseros” (hackers, developers, gamers and geeks) equipped with laptops camp on-site and immerse themselves in a truly unique environment.
Recognized as the biggest electronic entertainment event online in the world, Campus Party unites the brightest young minds in technology and science under the idea that the “Internet is not a network of computers, it’s a network of people.” 

16. SECTOR-SPECIFIC CHECKLISTS
The Guidelines offer sector-specific checklists for the following sectors:
Sector-specific checklists
Mobile operators
Internet service providers
Content providers, online retailers and applications developers
User-generated content, interactive and social media service providers
National and public service broadcasting
Hardware manufacturers
Policies and management processes
Child sexual abuse material
Safer and age appropriate environment
Educate children, parents and teachers
Promote positive use of ICTS

17. NEXT STEPS Finalization of the Guidelines
Broad dissemination of Guidelines among all stakeholders- Industry, Governments, civil society in all regions
Internally UNICEF – collaboration between Corporate Social Responsibility and Child Protection