DotKids Foundation held the workshop namely “Creating Child-Friendly Cyberspace — Balancing right to access and child protection” in RightsCon Southeast Asia on 25 March 2015 in Manila. The RightsCon summit series is with the goal of addressing the human rights issue on Internet and producing measurable outcomes by collecting opinions from different stakeholders, which was already the 4th summit held.
In the workshop, we are grateful to have guests and panelists from both child right communities and industries joining the roundtable discussion.
Panelist list:
- Amihan Abueva, Regional Executive Director, Child Rights Coalition Asia
- Hope Esquillo Tura, Manager for the Regional Child Rights Governance Program, Save the Children
- Erwin Forte and Jose Lentigas, Youth advocates from Sali ka Bata, ECPAT Philippines
- Nick O’Donnell, Regional Manager of Public Policy for Asia Pacific, Yahoo
- Edmon Chung, Chief Executive Officer, DotAsia Organisation
- David NG and Yannis LI, Coordinator of DotKids Initiative, DotKids Foundation
The workshop serves the purpose of discussing the best practice for child-related domain registry policy regulation, daily operation and advocacy work, with the fact that domain names targeting children, as defined as age under 18 according to The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), including. kids, .baby etc., will soon be appeared online by the introduction of new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) program of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
These domain names will hold an important role in reaching out to children and influencing children’s online behavior. A balance should be struck between ensuring children’s right to access to information and protection from approaching inappropriate content. The possibility of creating child-friendly cyberspace worth to be discussed as such for the best interest of children. Below you may find the summary and discussion outcomes of the workshop:
Workshop summary:
- Based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), children’s rights are including participation, provision and protection. On the Internet, children can act as recipient receiving online content, participant setting online conduct, as well as actor initiating online conduct.
- According to Guidelines for Industry on Child Protection Online revised by International Telecommunication Union together with UNICEF, businesses can take following actions
- Integrating child rights considerations into all appropriate corporate policies and management processes.
- Developing standard processes to handle child sexual abuse material
- Creating a safer and age-appropriate online environment
- Educating children, parents and teachers about children’s safety and their responsible use of Internet
- Promoting digital technology as a mode for increasing civic engagement
- Trainings should be provided for parents and teachers to get to know the usage of Information and Communication Technology, and ways to communication with children on online safety issues.
- Capacity of children should be built to tackle online safety issues by their own.
- We, adults from industry, government or civil society, should always consult children’s views and get them involve in policy discussion, and facilitate them to self-initiate program for peer support.
Workshop Material:
Child Rights Online – Balancing Risks and Opportunities
by Ms. Amihan Abueva, Regional Executive Director, Child Rights Coalition Asia
Implementing Children’s Rights Principles in the Internet
by Ms. Hope Esquillo Tura, Manager for the Regional Child Rights Governance Program, Save the Children