Child Safety Online

‘Child Safety online: Global challenges and strategies’ report aims to provide a better understanding of the risks faced by young people online, and presents a framework for protecting them from the triple headed dangers of child abuse images, online grooming and cyberbullying. The report from UNICEF’s Innocenti Research Centre outlines that although offering more opportunities for education and information than anything before it, the Internet has also amplified the scale and potential of threats to children. It also stresses the enormous benefits of the Internet in terms of education, socialisation and entertainment, and the rights of children to access those advantages. The research, conducted in partnership with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) in the UK, pinpoints four areas that need to come together to create a safer environment for children on the net: empowering children to protect themselves; removing the impunity of abusers; reducing the availability and access to harm; and support for the recovery of victims. The report notes that effective global legislation and enforcement are vital elements of protection, but at national level, implementation of laws has been slow in many countries, and where it has been enacted, it often lacks harmonisation, particularly in areas such as the definition of a “child”, and of pornography. The figures demonstrate the enormity of the challenge, but the report is pragmatic: “It is not possible to remove all risks that exist in the online environment. It is a space too huge, ungoverned, evolving, growing ad creative to ever be subject to the type of controls that would be necessary to fully protect children. Nor is it desirable that such control is sought, because total control would destroy the essence of the Internet and its many benefits”.