Half the world’s population now has a mobile subscription (pdf) – up from one in five 10 years ago – and there has been a rapid shift from fixed to mobile broadband. Many of those with access to the mobile internet will be children, and increasing numbers of them are in the developing world.
The mobile internet offers huge opportunities for children to learn, connect, share and express their opinions. So what specific actions can be taken to maximise these opportunities while minimising and tackling the risks of inappropriate content and contact, online harassment and abuse?
These topics were the subject of the Children’s Rights and ICTs – tools of the trade workshop held in London by the UNICEF Children’s rights and business (CRB) unit, in collaboration with GSMA, the global industry body for mobile operators. Representatives from a wide range of industry bodies and NGOs, including mobile operators, technology companies, children’s’ and human rights organisations, got together to discuss these issues and to hear some of the new ways to tackle them.
Andres Franco, deputy director, private sector engagement, UNICEF, started the day by talking about the wish and need to act to protect children online. “We are always asked: ‘what can I do’?” We have to make [actions] relevant to companies around the world. We have to formulate concrete measurable plans at the national level.”
Keynote speaker Mats Granryd, director general, GSMA, pointed out that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and 2g mobile internet were both around 25 years old. He looked forward to the truly connected society that 5g would offer, with the chance of better education and health treatment in even the most remote communities.
John Morrison, executive director, Institute of Human Rights and Business talked in his keynote speech about the complexities of ensuring privacy and security while at the same time protecting children’s rights. “Child rights themselves include freedom of expression and the right to participate in society,” he said. “So we can’t disconnect our children from ICT nor would any of us want to.”
UNICEF has already developed a range of tools and guidance for businesses that will help them in fulfilling their corporate obligations to respect children’s rights. At the event, the new tools developed together with the ICT sector were discussed.
Lego, for instance, embraces the Children’s Rights and Business Principles (CRBPs) – a 10-article framework that sets out actions companies can take to respect and support children’s rights and the UNICEF ITU Child Online Protection (COP) Guidelines for Industry. Lego has helped UNICEF develop a COP Guidelines’ related company self-assessment tool, which the company piloted recently.Lego came up with 13 actions it needed to take in the area of online safety: “We need to make them formal global policies that apply everywhere – because all children matter,” said Dieter Carstensen, head of digital child safety, Lego Group.
The global telecommunications and internet company Millicom has also used the CRBPs framework and helped UNICEF develop a mobile network operator (MNO) specific company self-assessment tool to help assess children’s rights impacts across the MNO value chain in different countries. In one of the African countries where they operate, they discovered there were areas of child rights impacts that they hadn’t considered, for instance the role of electronic waste in increasing the risk of child labour.
Other organisations have used different ways to create a safe online environment. Caroline Millin, Facebook safety policy programs manager, EMEA, for instance, talked about its social reporting tool which looks at ways of self-resolving issues such as bullying and the posting of inappropriate photographs. Ola-Jo Tandre, director of sustainability at mobile network operator Telenor, gave an example of their work with the Red Cross, using an anti-bullying chat room, through which children could offer each other peer-to-peer support.
Following these presentations, participants got together in one of three thematic working groups to talk about children and advertising, responsible gaming and apps, and online child sexual abuse materials. Discussions were lively and participants shared challenges, opportunities and good practice in these areas.
A significant focus of the day was on online child sexual abuse and the development of technological and other solutions to combat this. According to statistics from INHOPE – the international association of internet hotlines – the number of webpages that contained child sexual abuse material increased by 147% from 2012 to 2014. By March 2015, more than 6,300 victims of child sexual abuse had been identified in the International Child Sexual Exploitation Image Database managed by Interpol. The UK internet hotline Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) works with partners to ensure that URLs containing criminal child abuse content are identified and taken down in the UK. Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of IWF, chairing the panel discussion on child sexual abuse online, said the organisation had taken action on 32,000 URLs in 2015.
Becky Foreman, head of UK government affairs, Microsoft, spoke about PhotoDNA, developed in partnership with Dartmouth College in the US, which identifies illegal child abuse images. It creates a digital “fingerprint” which is tamper-resistant, creating a “signature” which is still evident even when images have been slightly altered. PhotoDNA allows companies to compare images with the millions of other images of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that have already been identified. “We use technology to find CSAM, and humans to check, review and remove the content,” Foreman said.
Anne Larilahti, VP sustainability strategy at mobile network operator TeliaSonera, was clear about her company’s limits. “If you are determined to view this material you can do it. But we can deter people who might watch it experimentally and can ensure our customers are not going to be faced by this material by accident,” she said. Within TeliaSonera, the company realised that blocking employees’ access to this content on their work-supplied computers or devices was not enough. Instead, they began proactively searching for it in their corporate networks. The company announced on their intranet that they were doing this. “There was no push-back,” she said.
Samantha Woolf, global partnerships and development manager at INHOPE, spoke about her organisation’s work involving 50 internet hotlines, in 45 countries around the world, to stop circulation of CSAM images. INHOPE works with Interpol and national law enforcement agencies to support notice and take down of illegal images. This is done using a prominent CSAM reporting button on their site and has reduced takedown time to days and (in the UK) sometimes hours. Using image and video fingerprinting systems means they can identify images at content level, not just the URL. That is key to avoid duplication of effort and exposure to analysts of already-known content.
Methods of tackling child sexual exploitation online were further discussed in a working group, where prevention, protection and technical solutions were considered. Issues that arose included the differences between what is culturally and legally acceptable in individual countries. Educating children about online sexual exploitation was also considered key. Projects mentioned by participants indicated that parents were best for educating 8-12 year-olds, but teenagers took more notice of “webstars” – online celebrities in their early 20s.
As noted earlier, GSMA and companies like Lego and Millicom are collaborating with UNICEF in developing practical tools for the ICT industry on safeguarding children. These tools are based on the Child Online Protection Guidelines for Industry and the CRBPs and they will be released in Q2 2016 following a global consultation.
Content on this page is paid for and produced to a brief agreed with UNICEF, sponsor of the child rights and business hub
