Statement by SRSG on Violence Against Children, Dr. Najat Maalla M’jid during the event Safe Connections: Ensuring Child Safety in the Digital Era

Geneva, 11 July 2024 - As the digital landscape evolves, the safety of children online has become a critical issue. Today, over 2 billion children navigate the digital world, and an additional billion are expected to join soon. The event "Safe Connections: Ensuring Child Safety in the Digital Era" was held in Geneva to address these concerns. This event, organized by Safe Online and Giga, aimed to integrate child online safety into global efforts to provide internet connectivity to schools and communities.

Dr. Najat Maalla M'jid, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children, delivered a powerful statement on the need to include children’s protection within efforts to connect schools to the Internet, emphasizing the urgent need for a safe and empowering digital environment for children. Dr. M'jid highlighted three key messages:

• Opportunities and Risks: The digital environment offers significant opportunities for children, such as expressing their views, accessing information and education, and receiving online services like violence reporting and psychosocial support. However, it also exposes children to diverse forms of violence and harm, which are spreading rapidly. Alarming statistics, such as a 7,200% increase in reports of financial sexual extortion targeting children between 2021 and 2022, underline the severity of the issue.
• Proactive Protection: The existing protection gaps must be addressed urgently. Effective legislation, adequate resources for law enforcement, and proactive measures from the ICT industry are crucial. Dr. M'jid called for child safety by design, child rights due diligence, and regulatory frameworks that are compliant with the highest standards of ethics, privacy, and safety of children.
• Children as Part of the Solution: Children must be empowered and involved in addressing online safety. They are increasingly turning to the digital environment for support and expressing their views on matters affecting them. Ensuring their effective online protection requires listening to their voices and respecting their perspectives.

The event featured two expert panels. The first panel discussed the interlinkages between digital connectivity and children's well-being, presenting the latest data, trends, and evidence of risks and harms in digital spaces. Experts highlighted how children interact on digital platforms, their perceptions of risks, and the steps they take to mitigate these risks. The second panel focused on solutions to ensure safe connections for children globally. Experts shared strategies, resources, and best practices for robust policy and regulatory frameworks, program design, technology tools, and industry practices. This included PoP – Protection through online participation – a global initiative co-led by the OSRSG-VAC and the International Telecommunications Union, which looks to better understand how digital platforms can also act as an entry point to accessing safety and protection when experiencing both in-person and online harms. 

Safe Online, a global collaborative fund hosted by UNICEF, has invested nearly US$100 million in 106 projects across more than 100 countries since 2017. Giga, a partnership between UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), works to connect every school in the world to the Internet. Together, these organizations strive to create a safe digital environment for children to explore, learn, and develop.

As the event concluded, the call to action was clear: the challenge of guaranteeing children's rights and safety online requires leadership, commitment, and accountability from all stakeholders. With only six years remaining to fulfill the 2030 Agenda's promise to end all forms of violence against children, the urgency to act has never been greater.