United Nations Children’s Fund

Telephone +39-055-20330

Innocenti Research Centre

Facsimile: +39-055-2033220

Piazza SS. Annunziata 12

http://www.unicef.org/irc

50122 Florence, Italy

florence@unicef.org

Innocenti Publication

Child Safety online: Global challenges and strategies
PRESS RELEASE
Midday GMT, December 13 2011

Threats & Opportunities on today’s Net for children
Florence-Geneva,Geneva, 13 December 2011 – Although offering more opportunities for education andinformation than at any time in history, the Internet has also amplified the scale and potential ofthreats to children, says a new report from UNICEF’s Innocenti Research Centre.
Child Safety online: Global challenges and strategies aims to provide a better understanding of therisks faced by young people online, and presents a framework for protecting them from the tripletriple
headed dangers of child abuse images, online
online grooming and cyberbullying.
“TheThe rapid growth of the online world has not created crimes involving sexual abuse andexploitation of children, but it has increased their scale and reach for potentially causing harm,”says UNICEF’s Director of the Office of Research, Gordon Alexander. “We need to recognise this,and take as many appropriate measures as possible, while still respecting the rights of children toexplore the new environment and potential that the technology provides.”Child Safety online: Global
obal challenges and strategies stresses the enormous benefits of theInternet in terms of education, socialisation and entertainment, and the rights of children to accessthose 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 ofabusers; reducing the availability and access to harm; and support for ththee recovery of victims.
The first line of defence – empowering children – is fundamental to tackling the problem, not least
because children are generally considerably more Internet-savvy
Internet savvy than their parents and teachers,
and have a different perceptions fromfro adults of the risks they face.
Many children know how to block or firewall their sites, and it is friends who are the first ports ofcall when difficulties arise, rather than adults, who have less understanding of the fast-changing
fasttechnology and may curtail
tail online freedoms.
Mobile phones are overtaking personal computers as the favoured gateway for Internet access forchildren, illustrating the point. But the advancement in technology, with faster broadband andcheap webcams as well, also provides added opportunities for abusers.
The report notes that effective
ffective global legislation and enforcement are vital elements
element 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,rmonisation, particularly in areas such as the definition of a “child”,and of pornography. Of 196 countries reviewed, only 45 have legislation sufficient to combat childabuse image offences. Removing abusers’ impunity should be another focus of attention
attention; achallenge made harder by the borderless nature of the crimes.
Legislation is, however, only one part of the answer and parents, teachers, social workers, thepolice and industry all have a role to play in supporting children’s endeavoursendeavours to protect
themselves, says the report.
Industry also has a role to play in removing inappropriate material from servers and providing
child-friendly
friendly hardware and software that enables offensive images to be blocked or filtered.
As of 2011 there were an estimated 16,700
16,700 websites globally that depicted child abuse images,
with millions of such images online, depicting “tens of thousands” of children. The age of childsubjects is also getting lower, with 73 percent of victims appearing to be under ten-years-old;
tenandimages
s are becoming more graphic and violent.
The figures demonstrate the enormity of the challenge, but the report is pragmatic: “It is notpossible 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 benecessary
y 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.”
Ends### ends ###The full report can be downloaded on UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre’s website
www.unicef-irc.org

See more @www.unicef-irc.org and twitter.com/UNICEFInnocenti
andwww.youtube.com/xxxx

contact:
James Elder
Chief, Communications
UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre
Telephone: +39 335 758 2585
jelder@unicef.org

Patrizia Faustini
Senior Communications Assistant
UNICEF Innocenti Research
Telephone: +39 055 2033 253
pfaustini@unicef.org