Today is International Children's Rights Day, a good opportunity to reflect on the key messages of the Internet Governance Forum 2020 regarding children's rights.

Chances and risks of digitisation for children and young people have become apparent in the Covid19 pandemic as if through a magnifying glass. During the lockdown phases, children and young people were and are able to maintain their social contacts via digital media and to realise their rights to access information and freedom of expression. At the same time, they are also more exposed to risks due to increased online use. According to Interpol, during the pandemic there has been a significant increase in chat communication relating to child sexual abuse. This involves grooming, i.e. the direct initiation of contact with children with the intention of sexual abuse, but also the exchange of abuse strategies in forums of paedo-criminals, as in the session Protection or Participation? Child Rights in a New Normal was explained. At the same time, during the pandemic, children have experienced how important the Internet is for their access to information, education, leisure and participation opportunities and for their self-organisation. Digitisation forms the basis for an increased perception of children's rights. The future vision of a self-organised movement of children using digital media to stand up together for their rights worldwide, which was the conclusion of the session, can become reality if platforms such as the Internet Governance Forum create the conditions for this by putting the realisation of children's rights on their agenda.

In the joint session of the Dynamic Coalitions DCs Main Session: Socio-economic recovery after the Covid19 crisis - Dynamic Coalitions' role also emphasised the high potential of digitisation for the realisation of human rights and for ensuring non-discriminatory access for all and more equal opportunities in the course of socio-economic recovery after the pandemic.

The increasing importance of social media was the focus of the session The Revolution won't be Televised, but Social Mediatised? This session focused on the responsibility of platform providers with regard to the dissemination of disinformation and the extent to which social participation can be enhanced by engagement with and in digital media. The risk of commercialisation of childhood was discussed under the heading New profiles of marketing aimed at children in the Internet . The development of services and platforms that address children and young people with new strategies makes it increasingly difficult to protect them from economic exploitation in the digital environment. The participants emphasised that the teaching of media competence is not sufficient to guarantee the requirements of Art. 32 of the UN-CRC.

The session Children's Rights and Participation in Data Governance focused on Articles 28 and 29 of the UN-CRC and the right to education enshrined therein. One of the demands here was to use the phase of the pandemic also for a scientific analysis of the effects of digital education formats in order to develop strategies that make the potential of digital media usable for educational processes.

The Main Session on Digital Cooperation, which dealt with the implementation of the UN Secretary-General's roadmap, also emphasised the need to combat the digital divide, which has once again become clearly visible through the pandemic, by all means and to anchor access to digital media as a human right. The session Setting childrens rights in the internet governance agenda also dealt with the task of policymakers to create a regulatory framework. Again, the need for global cooperation and a comprehensive database on access and use behaviour was emphasised in order to develop and implement appropriate measures.

In summary, the rights of children in the triangle of protection, provision and participation have received much attention in the context of Internet governance. Further developing this approach is not only the task of the United Nations bodies, but also of national governments and actors from business, science and civil society. The General Comment on the UN Commission on the Rights of the Child on the rights of children in the digital environment, the draft version of which was published for consultation by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in August 2020, provides an excellent basis for this.

For further discussion you are cordially invited to participate in the Open Microphone and Feedback-Session at the conclusion of the Internet Governance Forum 2020 on Wednesday, 25 November 2.00 - 4.00 pm UTC.

Never before has the Internet proven to be such a vital lifeline in maintaining economic and social ties, as the world is battling the COVID-19 pandemic. The high-level segment of the Internet Governance Forum opened on 9 November, with participants underlining the critical importance of digital technologies in supporting human resilience and building solidarity to respond to the challenges posed by the coronavirus.

Convened under the overarching theme of ‘’Internet for Human Resilience and Solidarity,” the 15th Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) enabled leaders and experts from all parts of the world to discuss the critical and central role of the Internet in keeping businesses afloat, maintaining family ties and friendships, and promoting global coordination in the efforts to tackle the pandemic. At the same time, the increased reliance on connectivity must be accompanied by stronger efforts to bridge the alarming digital divide that threatens to leave some people behind economically and socially, the participants stressed.

“In the least developed countries, only 19 per cent of individuals were online in 2019. We are leaving a large majority behind,” noted UN Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs Liu Zhenmin in his opening remarks, while also pointing to rifts when it comes to gender, affordable access and digital literacy. “We need solutions that help bridge the digital divides so that the benefits of digital technologies can reach those being left behind, unconnected.”

The multistakeholder high-level opening panel noted that people are living through times of intense digital transformation and that it was imperative for leadership in all sectors to invest more in a safe and secure, open Internet that is accessible to all.

Many echoed that action is required to reach those who are commonly left behind, to ensure they walk the path of progress with everyone: girls and women, young and older populations, refugees, migrants, and displaced persons, indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities. Small island developing states as well as least developed and landlocked developing countries also face a widening digital gap with developed countries.

The President of the General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir, said: “The SDG target of achieving universal connectivity by 2020 has not been met. In fact, 3.6 billion people continue to lack access to the internet.” Drawing attention to the existing inequalities, he said that the digital divide was exacerbating the situation and “eroding development gains in countries and communities that are disconnected from the rest of the world”. Pointing to the Decade of Action, he stressed that its delivery had been derailed by the pandemic and called for action. “We can use this moment to fast track progress globally, to invest in a sustainable recovery that is guided by the SDGs. Addressing the digital divide is a significant part of this.”

The President of the Economic and Social Council, Munir Akram, noted that the ongoing digital revolution had led to the creation of enormous wealth in record time, concentrated predominantly in just a few countries. He called for urgent action to allow developing countries to benefit from digital and other cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and robotics.

Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University pointed out that the "era of e-everything" brought immense opportunities for progress only if everyone was connected and equipped with skills and knowledge on how to safely use the Internet. Youth representative Pamela Cretu emphasized the importance of investing in young people.

Other speakers joining the Opening Leaders dialogue were the German representative of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy for the Digital Economy and Start-ups, Thomas Jarzombek; representatives from the Fiji government; former Swiss President Ms. Doris Leuthard; Mr. Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General of ITU; Ms. Victoria Grand from Whatsapp; Ms. Chat Garcia Ramilo from the Association for Progressive Communications; and Mon. Paul Tighe, Secretary from the Vatican.

The high-level segment of the Forum will continue through 17 November, with multi stakeholder roundtable discussions between heads of Governments and business leaders, technical communities, academic and not-for-profit initiatives. Five high-level sessions will focus on health, economy, security, social development, and environmental aspects of the role that Internet governance plays in emergencies and times of uncertainty.

A roundtable with members of Parliament from various countries will examine ways of building trust through the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery.

For the full IGF 2020 schedule, please visit https://igf2020.intgovforum.org/

About the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

The IGF was established by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2006 as a Forum for multi-stakeholder dialogue on public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance, such as the Internet’s sustainability, robustness, security, stability, and development. The Forum meets annually for an open and inclusive dialogue on Internet governance issues; to share best practices and experiences; identify emerging issues and bring them to the attention of the relevant bodies and the general public; as well as to contribute to capacity development for Internet governance. This year marks the 15th annual edition of the Forum, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event will be hosted online by the United Nations.

All sessions will be streamed live via IGF YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/user/igf

The High-Level Leaders Track will also be streamed live via UN Web TV http://webtv.un.org/

Media and other stakeholders are encouraged to participate and engage in all sessions.

Media contacts

UN Department of Global Communications

Esra Sergi Bertani, sergie@un.org

UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs

Wai Min Kwok, kwok@un.org

Helen Rosengren, rosengrenh@un.org

IGF Secretariat

Anja Gengo, anja.gengo@un.org

The first phase of the virtual IGF ended on Friday this week. Out of the broad range of pre-events and workshops two sessions highlighted children’s rights and their protection in the digital environment.

On Tuesday the British 5Rights Foundation organized the Pre-Event #11 Digital Cooperation and Children’s Rights. Speakers were Baroness Beeban Kidron, Prof. Sonia Livingstone, OBE, Dr. Amanda Third, Jutta Croll, Tarique Kenny and Prof. Olga Khazova as a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, co-chairs of the Working Group.

The session centered on the report released by UN’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation “The Age of Digital Interdependence” in June 2019. The report makes 5 sets of recommendations, among those to “Protect human rights and human agency”. The High-level Panel dedicates a reasonable part of its report to the rights and the safety of children in the digital environment, particularly referring to under 18s as making up one-third of all internet users worldwide. Since January 2019, concurrently to the HLPDC, a group of child rights advocates led by the UK-based 5Rights Foundation has been working on General Comment No 25, which outlines the relevance of the UNCRC with regard to children’s rights in the digital environment. A public consultation of the draft General Comment was started by the UN Committee on the Rights of the child in August and is still open till November 15, 2020. Baroness Beeban Kidron gave an overview on the two parallel developments and an introduction to the working process. Then Sonia Livingstone explained more in detail the necessity to address all areas of children’s rights with such a general Comment since the digital environment is deeply entangled with children’s lives. Evidence came from Amanda Third who had led the participation of 709 children from 28 countries around the world in the elaboration of the General Comment and presented some of the findings.

In the well-attended session the interrelatedness between the General Comment and the HLPDC’s recommendation 3B: “In the face of growing threats to human rights and safety, including those of children, we call on social media enterprises to work with governments, international and local civil society organisations and human rights experts around the world to fully understand and respond to concerns about existing or potential human rights violations”, was discussed. Overall about 50 experts with various backgrounds took part in the debate. Non-discriminatory access to the digital environment is a human right and also a pre-condition to exercise other rights like freedom of expression and access to information. Tarique Kenny, a youth representative from South-Africa stressed the need to ensure fair, inexpensive and reliable access to the Internet. On the African continent the lack of safe spaces for accessing the Internet is a real issue for young people he pointed out.

Olga Khazova underlined the timeliness of the General Comment when the importance of the digital environment has become more evident than ever during the pandemic. Children’s rights to protection, provision and participation have gained growing relevance in Internet Governance over the now fifteen years the IGF was held, as Jutta Croll explained. Therefore there is an obvious demand to operationalize the recommendations from the HLPDC now with a child’s rights perspective.

On Wednesday the Dynamic Coalition on Child Online Safety held their session on “Lessons learned from the Pandemic: child rights and safety”. The session addressed the situation the COVID-19 Corona pandemic has put the world’s population in and the consequences in regard of children’s rights. Evidence has shown for some time that exposure to risks to children increases when they spend larger amounts of time online. These could be in the form of undesirable contacts made through online games, exposure to unsuitable content or dubious purchase offers. So the crisis brings to mind the protective rights under UNCRC Art. 17 (protection of minors in the media), Art. 19 (protection against commercial exploitation) and Art. 34 (protection against sexual abuse).

Statistics of the German helpline “Nummer gegen Kummer” show an increase in children and parents seeking counselling during the crisis. Parents reported being overwhelmed by the situation, not feeling up to properly guide their children when being online and not having answers at hand to deal with inappropriate content and contacts of their children. Children on the other hand felt lonely and neglected at home, not being able to cope with the demands of online lessons from school and being afraid of losing contact with their friends.

Based on the evidence of an increasing amount of child sexual abuse material (csam) provided in a presentation by Cathal Delaney from Europol speakers in the session pointed out the need for better protection of children. Participants to the session referred to an interim regulation currently before the European parliament to maintain the legal status quo for platform providers using tools like photoDNA to detect csam. Not accepting the interim regulation would put children even more at risk once the European Electronic Communication Code enters into force on Dec. 20, 2020. Speakers also highlighted that fighting child sexual abuse material on the Internet is neither related to censorship nor to mass surveillance.

The session concluded with a reference to the General Comment on children’s rights in regard of the digital environment and stressed the necessity to respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights in the digital environment especially in the light of the ongoing pandemic and its consequences for children’s lives.

On Monday Nov. 9, 2020 the Internet Governance Forum starts its second phase with more sessions related to children’s rights and safety on the agenda:

9.11.2020

• 8:40-10:10, Room 3: Right to Play?---Online Gaming and Child Rights

11.11.2020

• 10:40-12:00, Room 1: Protection or Participation? Child Rights in a New Normal
• 16:10-17:40, Room 3: The Revolution won't be Televised, but Social Mediatised?
• 17:50-18:50, Room 3: Children’s Rights and Participation in Data Governance

16.11.2020

• 11:10-12:10, Room 3: New profiles of marketing aimed at children in the Internet

17.11.2020

• 13:50-15:20, Room 3: Digital Human Rights: Digital integrity of the human person

On Monday, November 2, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2020 will begin, this year in digital format as a virtual IGF, hosted by the United Nations. This year’s motto is "Internet for human resilience and solidarity". Here, economic, civil society, and technical representatives meet with high-ranking government representatives from all around the world and address the four thematic tracks: data, environment, inclusion, and trust.

During the first week a series of sessions and workshops of the IGF’s Dynamic Coalitions and the national and regional IGF initiatives will take place. In addition, open forums and events of transnational organizations will be held. In the second week, the program, which is divided into four thematic areas by the Multistakeholder Advisory Group, will begin. Until November 17, the program will include workshops, sessions, and roundtable discussions that will focus on the challenges of digital transformation for society.

Children’s rights and child protection have gained high awareness in the Internet Governance eco-system over the years since the Dynamic Coalition on Child Online Safety started its work in Rio in 2007.

We have produced a schedule of the sessions addressing aspects of children and youth growing up in a digital environment to make it more convenient for you to take part online. During the IGF week we will report from the event with a special focus on these sessions.

For the participation in the IGF a registration is necessary. Please be kindly advised here to register before October 26.

IGF-Sessions on “Growing Up in a Digital Environment”

3.11.2020 (Pre-Events)

• 10:20-11:50, Room 1: Digital Cooperation and Children’s Rights
• 16:10-17:40, Room Poland II: Internet - safety and development of children and young people - educational, social and legal consequences

4.11.2020 (Pre-Events)

• 8:00-9:30, Room 1: Lessons learned from the Pandemic: child rights and safety

6.11.2020 (Pre-Event)

• 15:10-16:10, Room 3: Investing in keeping children Safe Online

9.11.2020

• 8:40-10:10, Room 3: Right to Play?---Online Gaming and Child Rights

11.11.2020

• 10:40-12:00, Room 1: Protection or Participation? Child Rights in a New Normal
• 16:10-17:40, Room 3: The Revolution won't be Televised, but Social Mediatised?
• 17:50-18:50, Room 3: Children’s Rights and Participation in Data Governance

16.11.2020

• 11:10-12:10, Room 3: New profiles of marketing aimed at children in the Internet

17.11.2020

• 13:50-15:20, Room 3: Digital Human Rights: Digital integrity of the human person

Last reformed in 2002, the current German Youth Protection Act is no longer adequate to ensure that children and young people grow up well and safely with media.
Whereas the protection of minors used to focus on regulating the confrontation with harmful content, a modern protection of minors in the media must now meet completely different challenges.

The Internet is firmly embedded in the everyday life of young people, enabling them to have a variety of social contacts and access to information, educational and leisure opportunities. However, this is also accompanied by dangers and risks which make effective protection concepts and measures necessary.

The Federal Government is breaking new ground with the draft of a modern law for the protection of minors presented by Federal Minister for Family Affairs Giffey.
For the first time, the personal integrity of young people is anchored as a protection goal. The new law is based on a child rights approach which focuses on the best interest of the child in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and takes equal account of the protection, empowerment and participation of children. Three elements are envisaged for achieving contemporary protection of young people:

• Protection of children and young people from interaction risks such as bullying, sexual advances or cost traps;
• Orientation for parents, professionals and young people through uniform age labels;
• Enforcement of the regulations, also vis-à-vis foreign providers who make particularly high use of children and young people.

After the successful completion of the EU notification procedure, the draft law has now been adopted by Cabinet. In the next step, it will be submitted to the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament), then it goes into parliamentary deliberation and, if successful, can enter into force in the first half of 2021.

The Covid-19 pandemic has clearly shown the importance of using the Internet and online services when schools and kindergardens are closed and personal contacts are limited. In order for children to be able to exercise their right to access to the media, their right to education, their right to freedom of expression, assembly and association, cultural participation and play also in and with digital media, we need an effective and up-to-date protection of minors in the media as provided for in the draft law.