High-Level Session 5: Protecting Children’s Rights in the Digital World

Summary

This panel discussion focused on protecting children’s rights in the digital world. Experts from government, technology companies, and civil society organizations discussed the challenges and potential solutions for safeguarding children online.

Panelists highlighted how the digital landscape for children has dramatically changed, with increased internet access bringing both opportunities and risks. Key threats identified included privacy violations, cyberbullying, exposure to inappropriate content, and manipulation by bad actors. The speakers emphasized that while technology offers many benefits for children’s development and education, it also poses unprecedented risks that require new protection approaches.

There was consensus that a multi-stakeholder, collaborative approach is needed, involving governments, tech companies, educators, parents, and children themselves. Suggestions included improving digital literacy education, developing better parental controls and age verification systems, and creating unified international frameworks for child online protection. Several panelists stressed the importance of balancing protection with allowing children to benefit from digital opportunities.

The role of technology companies in proactively addressing risks was discussed, with examples given of AI tools to detect harmful content. However, some argued tech companies need to do more. The challenges of keeping pace with rapidly evolving technology were noted, as well as the need for more proactive and predictive approaches.

Overall, the panel agreed that protecting children online is a complex, global challenge requiring coordinated efforts across sectors. While optimistic about finding solutions, they emphasized the ongoing nature of this work as technology continues to advance.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– The current digital landscape for children presents both opportunities and risks

– There is a need for a multi-stakeholder approach involving governments, tech companies, parents, and educators to protect children online

– Digital literacy and education are crucial for both children and adults

– Technology solutions like AI can help, but human oversight and compassion are still essential

– International cooperation and unified frameworks are needed to address global challenges

The overall purpose of the discussion was to examine the challenges of protecting children’s rights in the digital world and explore potential solutions involving various stakeholders.

The tone of the discussion was generally serious and concerned, given the gravity of the topic. However, there were also notes of optimism, especially toward the end, with several panelists expressing confidence that solutions can be found and that children will adapt and thrive in the digital age. The tone became more collaborative and action-oriented in the closing statements, with panelists emphasizing the need for cooperation and concrete steps forward.

Speakers

– Marleni Cuellar – Moderator

– Sofiene Hemissi – Minister of Communication Technologies in Tunisia

– Sara Alfaisal – Member of the Human Rights Commission, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

– Muhammad Khurram Khan – Professor at King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

– Deepali Liberhan – Global Director of Safety Policy at Meta

– Eugene Kaspersky – CEO of Kaspersky

– Syed Munir Khasru – Chairman of the Institute for Policy Advocacy and Governance

– Andrei Zarenin – Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media, Russia

Protecting Children’s Rights in the Digital World: A Comprehensive Panel Discussion

This panel discussion brought together experts from government, technology companies, and civil society organizations to address the critical issue of protecting children’s rights in the digital world. The conversation highlighted the complex challenges and potential solutions for safeguarding children online in an era of rapidly evolving technology.

Current Digital Landscape and Threats

The panelists agreed that the digital landscape for children has dramatically changed, presenting both opportunities and risks. While the digital world offers learning opportunities, it also poses risks to emotional and mental health. Key threats include privacy violations, cyberbullying, virtual masking, deepfakes, and data harvesting. Children often interact with people without clear identities online, creating significant risks.

Challenges in Protecting Children’s Rights Online

The discussion revealed several key challenges, including the lack of consistent international legal frameworks and policies for child protection online, the limitations of purely technological solutions, and the need to balance protection with allowing children to benefit from digital opportunities.

Technological Solutions and Education

The panel explored various technological solutions, including parental control systems, child-appropriate verification, age assurance protocols, and platform-specific safety features. Meta, for example, has implemented over 50 features and tools to address risks, including specialized teen accounts and the adoption of the “best interests of the child framework” in product development.

Education emerged as a crucial component, with emphasis on cyber hygiene programs and digital literacy initiatives for both children and adults. As Eugene Kaspersky provocatively stated, “I think education for adults is more important than education for kids. Because the danger from non-educated adults is much more.”

Multi-stakeholder Collaboration

There was strong consensus on the need for a collaborative approach involving governments, civil society, and the private sector. Suggestions included developing specifications, protocols, and standards for child online protection, especially for smaller companies and startups. Cross-platform initiatives like Project Lantern were highlighted as examples of addressing harms at scale.

Role of Parents and Balancing Protection with Opportunities

The discussion emphasized the crucial role of parents in children’s digital lives. Syed Munir Khasru stressed the importance of parental involvement, stating, “We have to train, educate, inspire the children. And in my opinion, they are very smart.” Andrei Zarenin highlighted the importance of human communication and trust between children and parents.

Eugene Kaspersky suggested implementing flexible limits on children’s screen time based on factors like school performance, balancing technological protections with education to empower children to navigate risks.

Future Challenges and Ethical Considerations

The panel identified several unresolved issues, including effective age verification, balancing privacy with protection, addressing the digital divide, and keeping pace with emerging technologies like brain-computer interfaces and implanted chips.

Conclusion and Call to Action

The discussion concluded with a sense of cautious optimism. Panelists emphasized the shared responsibility of protecting children’s rights in the digital world and the power to make an impact through commitment. As Marleni Cuellar noted, it’s about “the importance of all children and wanting the best for them in the digital world.”

Eugene Kaspersky expressed confidence in fixing problems and saving kids, while Sara Alfaisal emphasized the power to make an impact through commitment. The panel underscored the need for a holistic approach combining technological solutions, education, policy frameworks, and international cooperation.

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, ongoing dialogue, research, and action will be crucial to ensure children can safely benefit from the digital world while protecting their rights and well-being.

Marleni Cuellar: We promise to have a very riveting discussion about a very important topic. I’m Marleni Cuellar and I’m going to be your moderator for today. And of course, today’s session is all about protecting children’s rights in the digital world. Now, I know many of us, whether we want to admit it or not, our childhood was distinctly different. Communication meant landlines. You couldn’t hide any communication you were having. Dial-up internet would announce to everybody that you were logging on online. And so, protection mechanisms and safety were very different when we were growing up. But today’s landscape is dramatically different. And the protection of children’s rights now becomes even more complicated when we’re talking about children living and growing up in a digital sphere. So, our conversation today, I’ll be joined by a very esteemed panel to be able to share some thoughts about what the current situation is, what the plans are in terms of developing safety mechanisms, and of course, hearing their own interpretation of what needs to be done and by whom. Some of the things that we hope to cover is understanding the current digital landscape for children and their rights in the digital world, identifying the main challenges and risks in protecting children’s rights in the digital world, explore technological solutions that can safeguard children’s digital rights and the role of education, examine regulatory frameworks and policies, and promote comprehensive and collaborative approach among all stakeholders. So, let me introduce you to our esteemed panel. to the esteemed panel for today. His Excellency, Mr. Sofiene Hemissi, Minister of Communication Technologies in Tunisia. Dr. Sara Alfaisal, member of the Human Rights Commission, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Mr. Eugene Kaspersky, CEO Kaspersky. Mr. Syed Munir Khasru, Chairman of the Institute for Policy Advocacy and Governance. Ms. Deepali Liberhan, Global Director of Safety Policy Meta. Professor Mohammed Khurran Khan, King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. His Excellency, Mr. Andrei Zarenin, Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media, Russia. Yes, yes, welcome. We’re all here. Let’s get seated. So as everyone gets settled, I want to be able to say welcome once again to all of you who are joining us live in this session, and also to those of you who are tuned in online. Child protection is of course a very important topic to many, many of you who are parents, and of course those who are simply concerned about the future for our children. So everyone is settled in? Let’s get started. All right, so one of the first things to establish in this conversation is knowing from both your experience and from the work that you do, what’s the current digital landscape for children, what does it look like, and what are some. of the most urgent threats that they face. Let’s start off with Mr. Kaspersky.

Eugene Kaspersky: Oh, okay. Good morning, everyone. And speaking about the threat landscape and what’s wrong with the kids in the cyberspace and what’s the difference is when we were kids and the kids right now, they spend too much with mobile phones. They spend too much time with the internet. And the main difference is that they play too much games. And these games are different. But from my point of view, I have five kids. So when I see them, I recognize that they’re playing the games, they train themselves with the different skills. So when we were kids, we were playing the different games. Now they play the online games. It’s different, but I don’t think it’s really bad. Because it’s just that it’s different skills. So our parents, they were playing the different games like we did. Our grandparents, they were playing also different games. So right now, I don’t see this as a major problem with the games. Just limit the time they spend there. The second thing is they consume too much information. Is it good or bad? Because they train, again, they train the different skills. They train themselves to consume different kind of information. The probably possible problem is it doesn’t get too deep in the mind. It stays on the top and disappear. And thinking about myself when I was a kid, and my parents. It was also different. My parents never kids. They consumed a different kind of information. We were kids It was all different. We survived So it’s a good question. Is it good or bad? Is it positive or negative and definitely negative is That the content they consume is random It could be dangerous the people they contact online They’re random people could be dangerous, especially for their very small kids. So this is the major problem so Then the keys they’re in a new Cyber a they in a cyber age. So when they’re in this cyber environment It’s a different with our experience than we were kids But this is the new world. It’s a new reality. So it’s a positive and negative at the same time So I recognize that the main threats that’s manipulation Manipulating the kids with the information with the online contacts and with Some modern toys the physical toys some of them they connected to the Internet and Well, I’m from cyber security. So we know that so some of these toys physical toys. They are vulnerable So it’s possible to hack them into manipulate kids online not from the mobile phone not from computer but from physical toys Which are smart toys so of course their cyber age It’s a different so it’s a positive and negative at the same time. So we need to be very Carefully understand so don’t stop our kids to use the positive To train the positive skills, but at the same time we need to control the content they consume and the people they contact and their safety of the toys they play. Thank you.

Marleni Cuellar: Thank you. And for you, Your Excellency, Hemissi.

Sofiene Hemissi: Good morning. I would like to thank you for this kind of invitation. As a matter of fact, it’s a very sensitive topic today. The world, the cybersecurity landscape witnesses unprecedented opportunities and risks. Right now, the virtual world constitutes the key part of their learning and education and part of their lifestyle. And we have a lot of challenges and a lot of opportunities. Today, the digital world is an opportunity to express themselves and to prove their existence. And this is a huge world, and it’s an opportunity to avoid the educational divide. But at the same time, it poses a lot of risk for their emotional and psychological health and mental health. And one of the key challenges is the manipulation and abuse and bullying and sex abuse and for attracting them for some malpractices. And this is very worrying and disturbing for us. And we have, as well, some risks related to the protection of the privacy of the children. Today, the gamification and the… electronic platforms combine a lot of information which is hard to consume, and we don’t know the real target of such information and the end of this information. So one of the key risks for the children is the digital divide between different segments of the society. We have some children who are well-connected for the e-learning platforms, and we have the majority of the children are underprivileged children, and this is a huge challenge to ensure equal opportunities for the children across the country. In addition to such risks and threats, it’s very worrying the origin of the privacy of people regarding the identity, the cultural identity, and the privacy of the people, especially in the Islamic and the Arab society, which is built on specific pillars, and such a privacy can put the cultural identity of our people at risk, especially in cyber security, and especially for the children. And I think the platform of gamification, I think they weren’t designed to take into consideration the cultural identity, and I think we should work together between different No one country can work alone, but this requires coordination, cross-border coordination, and concerted efforts between the civil society, private sector, and governments, and families, and the educational sector to set frameworks fit and put the rights of the children at the top priority. Thank you.

Marleni Cuellar: Thank you. And there we see some similarities, acknowledging that there is much good for children, but of course, major concerns as well. Let’s move to His Excellency Zarenin. In your opinion, what are the most urgent threats that children face online?

Andrei Zarenin: So I will be speaking in the Russian language. The interpretation was great yesterday, thanks to our interpreters, while this forum is very important for us, and so we were preparing for the next IGF forum. We were preparing to participate, but the decision was taken not in our favor. So as we said, the digital world imposes more and more influence on our children and opens more horizons for education, for creativity and communication, but simultaneously, in spite of those so many opportunities, it poses lots of risks. And today we can see that there are deep changes in the digital landscape that influence the psychological and social behavior of people and teenagers. And one of the most important challenges is the so-called virtual masking. Here we see lots of fraudsters that are using deepfakes, are creating a very false sense of trust, manipulating children’s behavior. And that’s… not only poses risks, but also causes psychological traumas, and this virtual manipulations that I’m discussing, and when we are using kids’ trust, they are creating a false identification in the digital world. And apart from that, teenagers are coming across different risks. This is cyber bullying, and also bad content, fraud, and also they engage in some terrorist communities, and also we are coming across the problem that also trafficking and sexual abuse, and all these threats can be devastating for the emotional and physical health of our children. For example, according to the data of the All-Russian Action Cyber Writings Crisis, lots of children pass through it, lots of teenagers cannot detect fraud in online gaming, and it’s very important to form the right skills of digital literacy when children need to detect fraud in online, and the cyber, one of the problems is the gap in their skills. Sometimes parents do not have the skills to have the dialogue with the children to discuss threats that poses the digital world, and our research shows that lots of parents are not certain about their skills to monitor the online activity of their children. That is increasing a lot these days, and that breaches the trust of the children and makes them more vulnerable. And considering all that, it’s very important to create interstate cooperation where not only governmental bodies and schools have to participate, but also families have to support their children in mastering the digital world. And I would say that the problem becomes more and more critical when we’re dealing with artificial intelligence. We discussed it yesterday, when like social media is used more and more widely, and like other tools are developing, and these new technologies are posing threat to the psychology of children. And I believe we need to create safe environment that would assist children to adapt to the digital world and minimize those risks. And this is why it’s very important, the collaboration of all the stakeholders, governmental bodies, families, educational bodies, private sector, to develop the strategy to protect our children and teenagers in the cyber world. Thank you for your attention.

Marleni Cuellar: And a very critical point that you brought up there about parents not being fully able to teach their children the protection mechanisms that are necessary. Let’s hear your thoughts on this, Mr. Khasru. Mr. Khasru, President of Saudi Arabia.

Syed Munir Khasru: First of all, I would like to thank the government of Saudi Arabia and also the Digital Governments Authority and the UN for having kindly invited. I would like to start by saying that I am very pleased to be here, and I’m very happy to be here, and I’m very happy to be here, and I’m very happy to be here, and I would like to push the boundary a little bit. Although I can’t see the audience very clearly. How many of you, after you get up from sleep, in the first 10 minutes, don’t go near your mobile phone? Can you please raise your hand? One, two, hardly three, four. Zero. Second question, those of you who have children, how many of you feel very anxious? that they are into some world where you think they’re exposed to a lot of risks and you’re not being able to keep a proper watch. How many? Can you raise your hand? Okay. The reason I was pushing the boundaries, basic human instinct is something we have to manage. We cannot fight against it. So I would tend to push this hypothesis. We have to train, educate, inspire the children. And in my opinion, they are very smart. Even in this year, people in the age group of 12 and below, 35 to 40 million will be using internet, which is 12 million more than people in the age group of 12 to 17. So what does it tell us? It tells us the primal human instinct that a child has is very strong even for a parents to manage. So I would like to propose we first understand what we’re dealing with here. So I have been one of those who have said, we need to manage, we need to find better ways to educate them, we need to find ways because what also is true, just as people who are exposed to cyber bullying are twice as likely to commit suicide, just as it is true, we have seen in many cases, like in America a few years back, a teenager committed suicide on online games, even where he had the game headset on. So it’s a tricky situation. And 60% of the people, children, interact with human beings without clear identity. Were there risks there? Yes. How do we handle that? We have to look at the benefit it brings. We have to look at the benefit it brings. We have to look at the benefit it brings. And that’s what this session is about. We also have to look at the benefit it brings because for a lot of marginalized communities, children on the fringes, disabilities, to many, Internet is a lifeline. Many of the people do monetization with very little investment. We have to look at the benefit it brings. We have to look at the benefit it brings for all of us. There was a dish she was supposed to prepare. In the evening when I saw the dish, I asked her, how did you do it? You said you had never done it. Her six-year-old daughter picked up a phone, went to YouTube, downloaded it, and taught her mother how to do it. It’s a multistakeholder engagement. It’s a multistakeholder engagement. As his Excellency, the Danish minister, has mentioned, which we’ll come to later part, it’s a multistakeholder engagement. Children, in our first thought, oh, children, five, six, ten year-olds, no. They are the future netizens. They have more power in their hand, and this simple device can change everything. So my opening remarks would be, and I can give you many, many examples, but I would like to give you a few examples. One of the things that we have seen is the European Union tried to put parental guidance in 2011. It failed. European Union tried to put parental guidance. It failed. That means kids are very smart. They can outsmart their parents. So we have to find a better way to inspire, encourage them to be better net citizens, and digital literacy would be one of the key things, in the absence of which it would be very, very difficult. So that’s my opening remarks. I’m looking forward to more engagement with my fellow panelists. Thank you.

Marleni Cuellar: Yes, of course. And digital literacy seems to be a resounding theme when we speak about protecting children online. Now, we understand that children interact in the digital space in many different ways, but let’s go ahead and say one of the primary ways they interact is through social media. And so, Deepali, as the Global Director of Safety Policy at META, we recently saw the rollout of the teen account, and we’ve seen a continuous development of some safety mechanisms for children online. What are the main challenges and risks in protecting children’s rights online?

Deepali Liberhan: Thanks for the question, and it’s a pleasure to be here. At the outset, I wanna say that we want young people to use our platforms to connect with their families and friends, to be able to explore their interests without having to worry about being unsafe or being subject to any kind of inappropriate behavior. And that’s why at META, we worked with experts as well as consulted parents and teens to make sure that we’re building these safe and age-appropriate experiences for them on our platforms. Some of the risks and challenges that we face, and the panelists also have talked about it, are essentially threefold, which is echoed by parents as well. The first is content. Parents are worried that their teens online are exposed to inappropriate content. The second is what you call contact risks. Parents are concerned that their teens may be exposed to unwanted interactions that could put them in harm’s way. And the third, as my esteemed panelists also mentioned, that parents are really concerned about the amount of time that their teens are spending online. So based on these… concerns and other risks that we see online. META has worked for the last couple of years to build and develop over 50 features and tools to address some of these risks. We also have a multi-pronged approach to safety so it’s not just about one thing, it’s about many things like we want to have robust policies which say very clearly what is okay and not okay to share online and we proactively enforce those policies and today we can say that a majority of the content that we have we’re able to remove it even before somebody reports it to us. We’ve also built over 50 tools and features including parental supervision because we’ve heard loud and clear from parents that they want to be involved in their teens lives and we’ve also heard from parents that some of them don’t have the skills to be able to have these conversations with young people and therefore we’ve worked with safety partners to make these education resources available and as you mentioned comprehensively we’ve brought all of this together where we launched teen accounts in September this year and we’re globally rolling it out. Teen accounts is essentially all teens on Instagram are placed in an inbuilt protective experience which address a lot of the concerns that I just talked about, you know, what is the content that you’re seeing, who is able to contact you and being able to spend meaningful time online. I’ll quickly go through some of the default protections that there are there in place. So teens are defaulted to a private account. We also put on the strictest messaging settings so that they are not exposed to unwanted interactions from adults. We’ve also put on the strictest controls content settings so there’s limited exposure to sensitive content which goes above what we already have in place which are our community standards which deals with violating content. We also heard from parents that, you know, they were worried about the time that the teens were spending online. So when you’re on Instagram, teens will actually get a reminder if they’ve spent more than an hour online and asking them to leave the app. And we’ve also enabled an automatic sleep mode. So between 10 PM and 7 AM in the morning, all your notifications get muted. So these are some of the things that we have done when we’ve launched teen accounts to address all of the risks that we’ve talked about. We’ve already rolled out teen accounts in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. And we’re globally rolling it out in the rest of the world. I think one of the things that’s most important to note is with the rollout of teen accounts, we’ve actually engaged and heard from parents. We’ve heard from teens themselves. And we’ve worked with experts in this field to make sure that we’re building the appropriate safe experience for young people on our platforms.

Marleni Cuellar: All right, Professor Khan, let’s get your thoughts on this.

Muhammad Khurram Khan: Thanks, Malini. And this is a great question. And first of all, I would like to appreciate the IGF for hosting this wonderful event. The topic of child online production is very close to my heart, because I have been working on this area for the last 10 years. And before we dive into the challenges to understand them, how they are evolving, we need to understand how technology is transforming for children and will keep transforming for the future, especially when children interact and engage with the technology. So the first important thing is that because children are using internet more than ever before, so there are challenges every day emerging online. For example, we have digital realm, so people or children. are going and they are accessing the websites and they are going to the metaverse, for example, the virtual environment. So these all things are blurring the lines between the physical and the digital realm. And the most important thing for me to foresight, you know, as a foresight and to foresee the future of the challenges is how the technology will permeate into the people. Now we are interacting with the technology, but in the future we will be having technology permeating inside by having, you know, brain-computer interface and we will have the chips implanted in our minds, you know, the brains, you know. And I’m afraid that, you know, what would be the situation look like in the future. Because if children are getting a lot of misinformation and disinformation from the platforms, but when the platforms will be, you know, embedding such kind of information in their brain and where they want to control them. So that is a very, you know, you can say challenging task and we have to be very vigilant about that. So there are two kind of risks I can categorize. The first is active risk, in which child is basically a direct victim of any kind of abuse. And the second is passive kind of risk. So passive kind of risk is, for example, children, you know, they put their photographs online and they do not know what is going to happen with them. So these photographs, for example, from the social media can be picked up by, you know, data harvesting groups and they can use those photographs to create deepfake of the children. And children don’t know that what happened with them. Nobody knows, you know, and this is becoming a very pervasive kind of challenge because the generative AI can do anything, you know. So anybody can create the deepfake videos and, you know, images of any person. So we have to see from the both perspective that how can we address the active and the passive attacks, and how can we build the policies, like our distinguished panelists already told, that we have to have a multilateral and multi-branch approach to address this challenge, and we have to have governance also for the platform so that nobody goes beyond their limits. So that is very important, yeah. Thank you.

Marleni Cuellar: All right. And Dr. Alfaisal?

Sara Alfaisal: Thank you. I’m very pleased and honored to be with you today. Okay, about the challenges, I think one of the main challenges in the cyber world is the privacy violation, and also what we see from all the attacks that happen to the children and cyberbullying and all these things. From human rights perspectives, we need to focus on the right of privacy, because the right of privacy, it’s a big right, and it’s included in the Universal Declaration and also it’s included in the Treaty of Children’s Rights. So when we lose this huge right of privacy, this will make the children face all these maybe difficulties, and I think maybe if we focus on this right and try to promote a solution, you know, our duty is trying to protect and promote human rights. So I think that we need to focus, number one, on these rights.

Marleni Cuellar: All right. And His Excellency, Hemissi? Challenges and risks in protecting children online. Tell us about your perspective.

Sofiene Hemissi: Child protection on the Internet. net, as my dear colleagues have mentioned, there are formidable challenges associated with it, among which is the lack of legislations and policies on the level of every government, every country, and on an international level. It’s correct that many countries have enacted laws and policies regarding child protection on the cyberspace, however, remaining all these legal frameworks and policies are inconsistent and there is a lack of unified framework that we could all rely on. Among other challenges, as was mentioned, is the abuse and exploitation on the internet, as well as the issue of data privacy and monitoring mechanism on this data on the level of each and every country and on an international level, specifically with the increase of solutions related to AI, the analysis of this data as it represents an opportunity and a room for more development comes with it or associated with many risks for the children. Also the inappropriate content for these age brackets, for these lower age brackets and the teenagers, exposing many of them to a great deal of issues that amount to suicide, as was mentioned in the past. I would also like to address the issue of the digital divide between the various brackets of the society. youth and children that have all the opportunities and the means. On the other hand, there are millions of people and millions of children cannot access the networks, especially in some of the African countries and some of the Asian countries, where the access percentage remains very low, and I think it’s our shared responsibility to provide equal access. I would also like to emphasize the importance of what we’re witnessing of the reduction of cultural and societal values, reflecting what the Internet content that has been provided over the past few years, as well as the phenomena of addiction, of social media, which is impacting the safety and sanity of the youth, and the psychological health and the physical health. In order to address all of these formidable challenges, I think it’s necessary to adopt a comprehensive approach that includes all the parties, governments, civil society, content producers, and I think this is the only way to move forward in order to come up with a unified framework to protect the rights of the children, especially in an era where we witnessed challenges that we have never witnessed in the past. Also, we need to protect their privacy and as well as enhance their well-being in order to create an equitable digital future that includes everyone. Thank you.

Marleni Cuellar: One of the things I think that we have all clearly identified is that there is a level of literacy that has to be established. There are many stakeholders in the protection for children. We talk about governments. We talk about regulatory bodies. We talk about parents. And we talk about the educational sector. Dr. Khan, from your perspective, what are some of the technological solutions that perhaps can help to safeguard children online? And in that, what role does education play?

Muhammad Khurram Khan: Yeah, it’s a great question, Malini. There is a very famous saying about technology. If you think technology will solve your problems, then you do not understand technology and you do not understand your problem. And this is very true when it comes to safeguarding children online. Because when we are giving access to a child to the internet, so it means that, on the other hand, we are giving online world access to that child. So in this manner, we need to have some kind of safeguards which should be implemented into the platforms. And for example, there should be some oversight of the algorithms. And there should be some kind of protocols which should be followed. So there is no single solution which can cater all the problems we have for the children. For example, we should have to have a multi-pronged and multilateral approach, which I earlier said in the previous question you asked me. What is that about? So first, we have to have a framework or an approach which should be at different levels. For example, strategic level, tactical level, and operational level. When I talk about the strategic level, I’m talking about some kind of regulations, laws, governance, and compliance, this kind of stuff we have to build. And the second is tactical. Tactical means we should have more standards, specifications for the tech platforms to adopt when they build the system. For example, when they build a system for children, then there should be child-appropriate verification. Age verification, age assurance protocols. As well as, there should be some kind of operational approaches, which means that the tools we are using for protection of children, for example, parental control tools. On the other hand, we should have awareness and education. So that should be inculcated into the curriculum of the children. Not only for the children, for the digital parenting, for educators, in the schools, in our environment. So all these things are very important to build a technological solution. It’s not just one thing, we can just build the technology. Technology sometimes fails, and technology obsoletes. So that is most important, that we need to have a multi-pronged and multilateral approach to build some kind of system which can protect our children while they go online.

Marleni Cuellar: And Mr. Kaspersky, from a cyber security perspective, you have seen the multitude of threats that people are exposed to daily. And perhaps in that experience, it’s challenging to imagine children being able to decipher what puts them at risk and what doesn’t. When we talk about technological solution, on which end is it more important? From the user or from the implementer?

Eugene Kaspersky: I think it’s from both. Technically speaking, it’s possible to build these parental control systems, which you just mentioned. But unfortunately, well, fortunately, it’s good news. The kids are growing and getting more smart, so they’re able to disable these tools. Unfortunately, the mobile phone operating systems, I’m sorry, I’m getting into the technical details, they don’t guarantee that all applications they run forever. So it’s possible to find the tricky ways how to disable some applications. And when the kids are 13-14 years old, they are smart enough to find these tricks and disable any kind of protection. So when I speak about mobile phone, for 10 years old, 11 years old, it still works. When it’s older, when they’re 16 years old, parental control works in a different way. The kids control parents. So speaking about the technical measures, it works for some kind of the level of the age. But maybe it’s also the good news. It makes them find the ways how to bypass the protection, training the mind how to behave if they’re facing the challenges. The other story is how to protect them from the other side, from the content side, from the Internet, how to find the information, wrong information, abuse information, forbidden information on the Internet. That’s the technologies. And actually this is also, we need help of the regulators to make Internet services, make them must do control the traffic they provide. And also the law enforcement to find the bad guys which generate this content, which generate this wrong abuse content, which want to try to manipulate kids. And in this case, we need to have more strong international cooperation. Unfortunately now the geopolitical situation is that like some countries they don’t talk to each other and unfortunately this just give their more opportunities to the very bad guys which use this the fact that the Internet doesn’t have borders and it’s more easy for them to do any kind of crime including the child abuse and stay unrecognized absolutely recognized so that’s a final my final point is that we need to have more strong international cooperation to find they’re not any kind of cyber criminals especially the child abuse criminals.

Marleni Cuellar: Thank you no just one of the things I wanted to say in setting the backdrop we’re talking about children’s rights the establishment of the United Nations Convention on the rights of a child took many things into consideration ultimately the protection and ensuring children reaching the full potential this was created before there was the digital realm and obviously gets more complicated now but the structure of how different entities come together to protect the most vulnerable citizens in our communities remains the same so when we transfer this idea into protection for a digital realm how do you see that collaboration playing out.

Sara Alfaisal: Okay if you allow me to switch to Arabia an answer to your question on the collaboration between the government’s with the civil society organizations is an important It’s an important question and it’s essential in providing protection to the children on the digital world. There are many modalities, among which is the exchange of expertise and increasing the awareness level in order to achieve important outcomes in that regard. We have all seen the Riyadh announcement yesterday. It includes many, many important elements in that regard. The enhancement of digital inclusion, the role of AI in the sustainable development and making most use of AI in innovation and enhancing the governance of AI, which is an essential point, an important point related to the child protection and the cyber world on the management of risks, potential risks of AI through creation of safe, sustainable systems. This cannot happen without the collaboration of the three partners, governments, private sector and civil society. They need to collaborate together in order to reach comprehensive, sustainable solutions to achieve the safety aspired for the children in the cyber world.

Marleni Cuellar: And Dr.Khasru ?

Syed Munir Khasru: I think this is, as most of us in one way or another have expressed the opinion, it’s a very multi-stakeholder engagement and I would, in my opinion, it starts with the tech companies because today Google, Meta, Microsoft, their cumulative worth is almost $12 trillion, which is more than four times the combined GDP of the African continent. So I personally believe they have a more active role to play. With all due respect to my colleague on the left from Meta. So I would like to start with you, and I would like to start with you, Mr. Yes, you have been doing content opinion, it’s still far short of what I have observed, it is more reactive than proactive. We can have different opinions, and happening in between this transition, are getting affected, and one of the things I would like to say is that technology is a bottom-up approach, not top-down, because it is impossible for any government, any tech, anybody to go to that nano-level. So it starts with small family, then society, then community, then nation, then region. Even before this meeting, I was speaking to His Excellency, that regionally, what some of the things can be done. So I think this is a very important issue, and I think it is very important to understand, because, it’s my impression, technology always leapfrogs policy in any part of the world, whether it’s authoritarian regime or democracy, it takes somewhere between six months to two years to pass a law. By the time you pass the law, technology has moved to the next level. So you’re always catching up. So I think we’re heading towards a very different situation, because, in the next one decade, the government will have to give you in that mandate, there’s some central force which adopts this laws and other countries follow, because the risk zone that we’re playing now, particularly when AI will kick in within the next one decade, that will be a very, very different situation. We’re not talking hypothetically, but when practically we’ll kick in, starting from the way you grade your students to what is original, what is copy, it will be a very different situation, because, if you’re going to have a large number of people to cluster around, it will be a big mess, unless there is some central force. So UN probably will have to scale up the operation. So that will be my answer from bottom-up how to scale it up. And I think tech companies have a very important role to play because to be honest with you, they’re more powerful than governments They’re spread around the world. They have access to all our personal data. What we eat where we live. What is our favorite color? What is our date of birth? So there are more information than FBI more information than Interagencies, so onus is on them. They are doing but I think they need to do more. Thank you

Marleni Cuellar: His Excellency is a running Let’s talk about the collaboration

Andrei Zarenin: Many thanks we heard a lot about the cooperation between government and the civil Society are we are studying of fathers and children by Turgenev and it’s about the perception The gap in the perception of the world between the generations. I’m sure when Ivan Turgenev was writing this novel he couldn’t Even comprehend how much it will decrease this gap in the age of technology and in today’s the digital world the we have essential role of Technologies and of course it plays a great role in providing the digital Protection for the children in Russia. We work with Internet companies with providers of Internet And they should adapt according to the current day threats Yevgeny has mentioned that children in many ages can Go through navigate through Bringing down the barriers and in Russia. We are working we have special portals from the government bodies who tackle these problems in the portal of government services, we have a special department for children protection in cyberspace. We have the recommendations for parents. And together with our partners, Lyons, working on the child protection on the web, and we are planning to do the mailer from the portal of government services. None of the current web filters can replace the human cooperation. And we have developed a charter of protection of children, and there are principles protecting the rights and identity of the child. And we under highlight the protection of the identity and privacy of data, and it’s very important in the world of technologies. Also, I would like to pay attention that there’s united the responsibility to protect the children. As adults, this is our task to show to the children how wonderful and diverse is the world. And using gadgets and the web is one of the tools of learning things about this world. And of course, we are working in our ministry. We have the program of cyber hygiene, and the goal of this program is to explain to children in simple language the rules of behavior on the web. Over 10 million, and including 4 million children and adults, participated in different projects related to cyber security. We work with non-profit organizations. We have run so many events which were related for child protection on the web, the lesson on digital world, the digital dictation. We support such initiatives, and we are always open to productive interaction, and we always work to protect the children in cyberspace.

Marleni Cuellar: The Press What is taking place in Russia? Now, Ms. Liberhan, let’s talk about it from Meta’s point of view. As private sector, how do you see this collaboration playing out with civil societies and government?

Deepali Liberhan: So as I said at Meta, you know, we have an approach to safety which is a multi-layered and a multi-pronged approach, where we think about having the right policies, features, tools, and also working with experts, parents, and young people to build safe and age-appropriate experiences. But over the last few years, we’ve gone beyond that because we know a lot of bad actors don’t restrain themselves to one platform, and they move across platform. And I think this is why it’s really important to underscore collaboration between industry, between civil society regulators, to be able to address some of these harms at scales. I want to give two examples of what we are currently doing now. One is Project Lantern. So Project Lantern is run by the Tech Coalition, where all participating companies have the opportunity to share signals about accounts and behavior of those who are violating the child safety policies. Now this goes beyond just Meta. It’s available to all participating companies, and what this helps in doing is it helps all these platforms do their own investigation, so we are able to address these harms in a scalable way because we know predators will move from platform to platform. The second thing that I want to mention is StopNCII.org, as well as Take It Down, which is run by the Revenge Porn Hotline and Nick Mick, which is again a way to address these harms in a scalable way because all participating companies are part of this, and what anyone who’s afraid about their intimate image being shared can actually share a hash with StopNCII.org or Take It Down, and companies like us will receive those hashes, so when that content is actually we are able to remove this kind of content. The reason why I’m giving these two examples is that we hear often that technology companies are not doing enough, but these are some of the ways that we are coming together to address these harms in a very scalable way, not just at a meta level, but at a cross-platform level. And it’s also really useful to have discussions because education about these features and tools and services is really important as well. So what is the role of educators? What is the role of parents? What is the role of regulators? And how can we as a community come together to address these harms and also identify what the gaps are and then work together to address those?

Marleni Cuellar: Now, picking up on some of the points that have been discussed so far, one of the things that still sticks out to me is when we talk about educating our children on how to stay safe online, we’re laying expectations, quite frankly, on a generation that is not up to date with the threats that exist. In my own work, when we talk about media and information literacy, we’re constantly teaching adults on how to detect disinformation and misinformation and the understanding of deep fakes. And so when we talk about these persons then having to teach children about those risks and now there are other manipulation tools that exist specifically for children, how do we pass on that responsibility when they’re starting from a place of knowing less than the person they’re educating? Dr. Khan, you wanna start us off?

Muhammad Khurram Khan: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, like I mentioned, that technology is not a panacea, you know, or it’s not just a solution for everything. So regulation. Governance are very, very important, you know, and especially when we talk about the AI, which is just the narrow AI we are having now, by the way. So we are not talking about the AGI, you know, Artificial General Intelligence and Artificial Super Intelligence. When we will have this kind of technologies, you know, coming, you know, in the future and brain computing interfaces, so the challenges will be, you know, at the unprecedented level. So what I would say is that, because child online protection is a global problem, and it also needs a global solution. And what solution? The question is that. The solution is that, because the Western world, the developed countries, you know, so they already have skills, resources and technologies. But what about the rest of the world, the least developed countries or developing countries? So we should have some kind of inclusiveness, you know, in the safety and protection of children, not only from the developed world, from the rest of the world also. So what we need to do is that we need to have some kind of cooperation under maybe United Nations, ITU, G20 and G7 and many other, you know, multilateral organizations to build the curriculum, to build the tools and technologies, to build the policies, governance and foresight of the technologies, because like it was mentioned that we are reactive to the technology. That is not a solution. We have to be, you know, predictive about the technologies, like I’m mentioning. We have, for example, quantum computing, you know, and which is changing all the ways. So how would be the impact of these kind of technologies on the children? So it has to be, you know, like studied, it has to be, you know, you can say communicated with all the stakeholders who are building the policies, who are building the technologies and solution. Yeah.

Marleni Cuellar: I think Mr. Kaspersky said earlier, let’s remember that there is good that comes along with the bad. Obviously, I know for a lot of parents who are probably watching, as they hear about the potential threats that they may be unaware of. The inclination is, let me protect my child by limiting any access whatsoever. What’s the balancing act here?

Eugene Kaspersky: That’s a good question. That’s a good question. We have to find a good balance. Actually, that’s what I do with my kids. The limit is flexible and it depends on the school results. So if they perform better, they have more time on the Internet. If they perform before the acceptable limit, they exchange their mobile phone, smartphone with the old-style Nokia. That’s it. And speaking about education, about cyber threats and wrong information, well, I’m very sorry. I have a completely different opinion. I think that education for adults is more important than education for kids. Because the danger from non-educated adults is much more. They can do much more dangerous mistakes. Okay, we as a private company, we do a lot of cybersecurity, a lot of education. We do it for any kind of the audience. We do it for the professionals, for students, for kids, for very small kids. Welcome to the booth. You will see the book about the cybersecurity, the book with the pictures. It’s for very small kids. And we do it a lot. But my experience is that kids, they are learning much faster than adults.

Marleni Cuellar: They outsmart them very often. So this is an open question if there’s anybody else who wants to share thoughts.

Syed Munir Khasru: I think, I’ll just add to what he just said. One of the things probably we are oversighting, the role of parents. And one of the things which I fear in this generation, the proportionate loss of appreciation, understanding of the human component. So no matter what AI, what advanced technology we embrace in the coming decades, the human compassion, empathy, that human touch will always be the number one factor. Even in medicine, you may have the best AI driven medical facility. End of the day, a patient wants to hold the hand of a nurse, of a doctor. And one of the things I can see right and left, I’ll give a very simple basic example. When kids accompany their parents, even go to social events, I see kids with mobile and pads, busy. And I’ve seen very few parents even to tell them that, you know, you need to interact, engage with the people who have come to your home. Very basic things. So what is happening, what I fear, we are unleashing a generation, extremely talented, very well informed. And imagine our forefathers, whatever cerebral capacity they had. So in the same garage, you’re now parking four cars, because over flooding people with information. So there’s an information overload. So, but God has not changed the composition of your brain. In the same garage, you’re trying to park four cars where you used to park one car, right? So people are very stressed. And one of the reason you may have noticed, many of the social media-led movement has always not been successful. Why? Because they lacked a proper human face. If you look at last 15, 10 years, for even the political scapegoats happening, why so many young people come to the street, put their life in the line of fire, and then fail? That’s a question we have to answer. Where is the missing link? And there I think parents have an important role to play. We have talked a lot about children, absolutely. But we must not oversight the overarching important role parents have to play. And so just buying a kid. a smart phone and giving access is a very shortcut route. And the merit and value of bedtime stories is still as important as it was 20, 30 years back. My concern is in the drive, a natural inclination toward technology, we’re sidestepping some basic human factors which continue to shape how we make the future citizens. Thank you.

Marleni Cuellar: And Deepali, before we move into our closing statements, I wanted to kind of broaden the conversation back to technology. Give us some insight, because I think earlier it was said that technology companies seem to be reactive versus proactive, but it seems that that’s a situation that we find ourselves in. The technology comes out, there’s a rapid uptake, and the manipulation that comes along with it. But are some of the technology that’s emerging, are they gonna be helpful tools in being able to guide or ease the protection mechanisms for children? Verification of age, for example, using AI to detect some of the deep fakes. Is this also an opportunity moment for us?

Deepali Liberhan: I think that’s a really good question, and it is an opportunity. And let me give you an example. I’ve been with Metta for over a decade, and when I joined Metta, we had community standards, which were clear rules about what was okay and not okay to post online. But we were very dependent on user reporting to be able to tell us that that content is bad content and we need to take it down. Over the years, we’ve heavily invested in technology, in proactive technology, that now we are able to remove a majority of the content before it’s reported to us by anyone. So if you look at the latest transparency report that we have where we publish these numbers. we were able to remove I think for child sexual abuse material more than 7 million pieces of content, for bullying and harassment more than 7 million plus pieces of content, for suicide and self-injury content about more than 5 million pieces of content and I think a majority of this content we were able to remove before anybody reported it to us and that’s the work of AI and we’re continuing to work with proactive technology in the areas that you’ve mentioned whether it’s verifying age you know what are the signals that we can look for to be able to identify when somebody is under the age of 18 or continuing to see how we can use this technology to be faster and more effective and I do think technology has a very important role to play to be able to address some of these harms and we’ve been using it a long time and we’re gonna continue to do build on it to address a lot of these issues that have been that have been raised today.

Marleni Cuellar: All right well there’s a lot more that we can discuss on this particular topic but I do want to give our panelists the opportunity to give their closing statements.

Sofiene Hemissi: Shukran. Thank you. It was very enriching discussions and I know that the complexities of this digital world we have one true fact which is the protection of human the children rights it’s not a option but it’s a shared responsibility in the digital world the child has the right to safe digital space which ensure growth and and provide opportunities for skill development it’s a space to express themselves and talents to achieve this end. It’s not the responsibility of the governments or civil society or private companies, but it’s a shared and joint responsibility without any exception. The government is responsible for certain framed policies, which we cannot prevent or apply the conventional methods. However, the civil society has a role, a greater role to play for the awareness, education, as well as the private companies play a greater role to develop and create appropriate content to children and to their identity and the culture, and as well as the comprehensive awareness and appropriate, as I said, to this kind of complexity. So under cooperation between international organization and the states, it’s very important. No single country can achieve this end without the international cooperation at different levels. And I hope that we create a very safe digital space and landscape for all. Thank you.

Sara Alfaisal: Thank you for your contribution today. As we conclude our session, I think that we have to remember the key points that we have discussed, and also the action that we need to take to move forward. I think that, together, we have the power to make great impact. It’s all about commitment. Thank you.

Eugene Kaspersky: Thank you. Yes, the wrong and abused content on the internet. That’s bad Manipulating the kids. That’s really bad. We need to fight with that but Now we say that the kids they spend too much time with mobile phones But the previous generation will spend too much time playing computer games The generation before they were too much watching TV Before they were too much reading books So I am optimistic We will fix the problems. We will save our kids and that will be the happy generation and They will have kids too And they will face the same problems

Marleni Cuellar: I

Syed Munir Khasru: Mean I Would like to conclude whatever I I Jeff in a way stands for what I was going to say I for inspiring the children to learn To navigate the web in a manner that adds value to their life Then comes the G the governance part Where we have to do a better job to try to make it as safe secret as possible Then comes the F that That free the human spirit and if you go by UN Convention on child rights IGF is all about child rights and Another thing I think since we are having a very free and frank exchange of ideas I would like to draw attention because I think it would be incomplete Everybody in this room must recognize Any child anywhere in the world Life lost injured sick Should have equal value of life. That means a Rohingya child born in a camp in Bangladesh refugee or a Palestinian child struggling for life all have equal value. And I must say, it’s my opinion, many of the social media companies are not being just fair and equal. And I do not believe they should be dragged into bigger geopolitics. They should be like the United Nations, where every country, every citizen has a voice. Because I have seen many people deserting social media in recent times, which should be a wake-up call. So, people are smart, children are smart, youth are smart, teen are smart. And we must understand, every life, every child matters. Thank you.

Deepali Liberhan: I want to close by saying that, you know, we’re really grateful for the opportunity to be here because a lot of these discussions really helps inform the work that we do on our trust and safety space. So, I want to thank the panelists for their very clear and helpful comments. The other thing that I would close by saying is that, at META, we’ve adopted the best interests of the child framework when we’re thinking about building products and features for young people, which has been guided by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. I won’t go into all the considerations, but two important ones are, one is engagement with the families and teens who use our apps, which is why we’re going to continue to work with parents and teens and experts as we think about building for them. And the second consideration is building safe and age-appropriate experiences. And everything that we’ve done, including teen accounts, including working with other organizations, whether it’s Project Lantern or StopNCII.org or Take It Down, is in furtherance of making sure that we… can do all that we can to keep young people safe on the platforms. But it is a collaborative approach and there is a role for educators, there is a role for civil society, there is a role for regulators as well. And I think it’s really important to have more opportunities to come together and develop those roles. I also think that it’s important to have legislative solutions and we’ve also proposed a legislative solution where we think that age assurance at an app level or an OS level and parental consent at that level really will make things easier for parents to be able to navigate their online experience and also minimize the data collection and address some of the age assurance concerns that our stakeholders have raised. And I think it really is a multi-stakeholder community approach and we need to come together to address a lot of these issues as we have been doing.

Muhammad Khurram Khan: Yeah, as we know that Saudi Arabia has two global initiatives. One is child online protection and protecting and empowering women in cybersecurity. So in my opinion, the child online protection should be woven into the fabric of our society. So it should be, you know, very important and we should have some kind of specifications, protocols, formulations and standards which we are actually lacking to guide the social media platforms and online platforms when they build that technology, they should include into their systems. Because not only META and, you know, big organizations, they have the resources, right? But what about small startups and small companies? So they do not know about these things. So if there are some specifications, standards, you know, protocols, so they would include those things into their systems when they build. So it will assure that child remains safe and sound and their well-being is protected while they go online. Yeah, thank you very much.

Andrei Zarenin: I have a responsible mission in my closing word because I’m the final one speaking, so I’ll try to be positive. I would like to stress that security and legislative environment for children, it’s also a social challenge. And as we have already discussed, cooperation of families, business, society, without all that, we cannot be effective without our children will feel safe and protected. And from my point of view, Internet, we have already discussed it, it’s just one of those windows to all this world. And the key point, from my point of view, is the human communication, this is trust between children and parents. And no filters and technologies might replace this actual dialogue. And from my point of view, we need to concentrate on complex solutions that will unite education, technical protection, and psychological support in some situations. We, as Russia, we are ready for international cooperation. We are ready to share with our tools, with our educational programs, and be in some cooperation to protect our children. So let’s create a safe and inspiring environment for our children. And let me conclude with this phrase that our children will be smarter than us.

Marleni Cuellar: In some cases, they already are. So with that, I want to say thank you to all of you for joining us this morning, and for those of you who took the time to join us this morning as we had this conversation. What is the resounding theme here is that there is a recognition that there has to be a multi-stakeholder approach in ensuring the protection of children in the digital realm. Just up here, we have a wide representation, private sector, education, government, civil society organizations, and the technology organizations as well. So this is perhaps a one of many steps to be taken to formalize what the plan of action would be. But I do think the point that you made, Mr. Kaspersky, is probably most important. We’ll survive this too. But all our children are important and we just want the best for them as they interact in the digital world. Thank you all for joining us. And enjoy the rest of your day. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪

Agreement Points

Digital world offers both opportunities and risks for children

Eugene Kaspersky

Sofiene Hemissi

Andrei Zarenin

Syed Munir Khasru

Deepali Liberhan

Children spend too much time with mobile phones and games, but this trains different skills

Digital world offers opportunities for learning but poses risks to emotional and mental health

Virtual masking and deepfakes create false sense of trust and manipulate children’s behavior

Children interact with people without clear identities online, posing risks

Content risks, contact risks, and excessive screen time are key concerns for parents

Speakers agree that the digital world presents both opportunities for learning and skill development, as well as risks to children’s safety and well-being.

Need for multi-stakeholder collaboration

Sofiene Hemissi

Syed Munir Khasru

Deepali Liberhan

Andrei Zarenin

Lack of consistent international legal frameworks and policies for child protection online

Tech companies should play a more active role given their resources and reach

Cross-platform initiatives like Project Lantern help address harms at scale

Cyber hygiene programs and digital literacy initiatives are important for educating children

Speakers emphasize the importance of collaboration between governments, tech companies, civil society, and educational institutions to address online child protection issues effectively.

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasize the importance of implementing technological solutions and standards to protect children online, such as age verification and specialized features for young users.

Muhammad Khurram Khan

Deepali Liberhan

Need for child-appropriate verification, age assurance protocols, and standards for platforms

Meta has implemented over 50 features and tools to address risks, including teen accounts

Both speakers highlight the importance of addressing privacy concerns and manipulative behaviors in the digital space to protect children’s rights and well-being.

Sara Alfaisal

Andrei Zarenin

Privacy violations and cyberbullying are major challenges from a human rights perspective

Virtual masking and deepfakes create false sense of trust and manipulate children’s behavior

Unexpected Consensus

Positive aspects of children’s digital engagement

Eugene Kaspersky

Syed Munir Khasru

Children spend too much time with mobile phones and games, but this trains different skills

Children interact with people without clear identities online, posing risks

Despite acknowledging risks, both speakers unexpectedly highlight positive aspects of children’s digital engagement, such as skill development and access to information, suggesting a nuanced view of the digital landscape for children.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The main areas of agreement include recognizing both opportunities and risks in the digital world for children, the need for multi-stakeholder collaboration, and the importance of technological solutions and education in addressing online child protection issues.

Consensus level

There is a moderate to high level of consensus among the speakers on the complexity of the issue and the need for collaborative efforts. This consensus implies that future initiatives to protect children online are likely to involve diverse stakeholders and multifaceted approaches, combining technological, educational, and regulatory measures.

Different Viewpoints

Impact of technology on children

Eugene Kaspersky

Sofiene Hemissi

Children spend too much time with mobile phones and games, but this trains different skills

Digital world offers opportunities for learning but poses risks to emotional and mental health

While Kaspersky sees technology use as potentially beneficial for skill development, Hemissi emphasizes the risks to emotional and mental health.

Effectiveness of technological solutions

Eugene Kaspersky

Muhammad Khurram Khan

Parental control systems work for younger children but older teens can bypass them

Need for child-appropriate verification, age assurance protocols, and standards for platforms

Kaspersky highlights the limitations of technological solutions, especially for older teens, while Khan advocates for more robust technological measures.

Unexpected Differences

Role of parents in digital education

Eugene Kaspersky

Syed Munir Khasru

Parental control systems work for younger children but older teens can bypass them

Children interact with people without clear identities online, posing risks

While most speakers emphasized parental involvement, Kaspersky unexpectedly highlighted the limitations of parental controls, suggesting a need for alternative approaches, especially for older teens.

Overall Assessment

summary

The main areas of disagreement revolved around the impact of technology on children, the effectiveness of technological solutions, the role of tech companies, and the balance between education and technical measures.

difference_level

The level of disagreement was moderate. While speakers generally agreed on the importance of protecting children online, they differed in their emphasis on various approaches and solutions. These differences highlight the complexity of the issue and the need for a multi-faceted approach to children’s online safety.

Partial Agreements

Both agree on the importance of tech companies’ role in protecting children online, but differ on the extent of current efforts. Khasru calls for more action, while Liberhan highlights existing measures.

Syed Munir Khasru

Deepali Liberhan

Tech companies should play a more active role given their resources and reach

Meta has implemented over 50 features and tools to address risks, including teen accounts

Both emphasize the importance of education and technological measures, but focus on different aspects – Zarenin on education programs, Khan on technical standards and protocols.

Andrei Zarenin

Muhammad Khurram Khan

Cyber hygiene programs and digital literacy initiatives are important for educating children

Need for child-appropriate verification, age assurance protocols, and standards for platforms

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasize the importance of implementing technological solutions and standards to protect children online, such as age verification and specialized features for young users.

Muhammad Khurram Khan

Deepali Liberhan

Need for child-appropriate verification, age assurance protocols, and standards for platforms

Meta has implemented over 50 features and tools to address risks, including teen accounts

Both speakers highlight the importance of addressing privacy concerns and manipulative behaviors in the digital space to protect children’s rights and well-being.

Sara Alfaisal

Andrei Zarenin

Privacy violations and cyberbullying are major challenges from a human rights perspective

Virtual masking and deepfakes create false sense of trust and manipulate children’s behavior

Key Takeaways

Protecting children’s rights in the digital world requires a multi-stakeholder approach involving governments, tech companies, civil society, and parents

The digital landscape offers both opportunities and risks for children, including educational benefits but also threats to privacy, mental health, and safety

Technological solutions like parental controls and AI-powered content moderation can help, but must be balanced with education and human oversight

International cooperation and consistent legal frameworks are needed to address cross-border online threats to children

Digital literacy and cyber hygiene education are crucial for both children and adults

Resolutions and Action Items

Continue developing and implementing technological safeguards like Meta’s teen accounts and cross-platform initiatives like Project Lantern

Increase collaboration between stakeholders to develop standards, protocols and specifications for child safety to be integrated into online platforms

Expand digital literacy and cyber hygiene educational programs for children, parents and educators

Work towards more consistent international legal frameworks and policies for online child protection

Unresolved Issues

How to effectively verify age and implement age-appropriate protections online without compromising privacy

Balancing children’s rights to privacy and expression with parental oversight and protection

Addressing the digital divide to ensure equal access and protections for children globally

How to keep pace with rapidly evolving technology and emerging threats

Suggested Compromises

Flexible limits on children’s screen time based on factors like school performance

Balancing technological protections with education to empower children to navigate risks

Implementing child protection measures at the operating system or app store level to reduce data collection concerns

We have to train, educate, inspire the children. And in my opinion, they are very smart. Even in this year, people in the age group of 12 and below, 35 to 40 million will be using internet, which is 12 million more than people in the age group of 12 to 17.

speaker

Syed Munir Khasru

reason

This comment challenges the notion that children need to be protected from technology, instead suggesting they need to be empowered to use it wisely. It also provides surprising statistics about young children’s internet usage.

impact

This shifted the conversation from a protective stance to one focused on education and empowerment. It led to further discussion about digital literacy and the role of parents and educators.

Now we are interacting with the technology, but in the future we will be having technology permeating inside by having, you know, brain-computer interface and we will have the chips implanted in our minds, you know, the brains, you know. And I’m afraid that, you know, what would be the situation look like in the future.

speaker

Muhammad Khurram Khan

reason

This comment introduces a futuristic perspective on technology integration, raising ethical concerns about the long-term implications of technology on human cognition and autonomy.

impact

It broadened the scope of the discussion beyond current issues to consider future challenges, prompting others to think about long-term technological trends and their potential impacts on children.

From human rights perspectives, we need to focus on the right of privacy, because the right of privacy, it’s a big right, and it’s included in the Universal Declaration and also it’s included in the Treaty of Children’s Rights.

speaker

Sara Alfaisal

reason

This comment frames the discussion in terms of fundamental human rights, emphasizing the importance of privacy in the digital age.

impact

It refocused the conversation on legal and ethical frameworks, leading to further discussion about the role of governments and international bodies in protecting children’s rights online.

If you think technology will solve your problems, then you do not understand technology and you do not understand your problem.

speaker

Muhammad Khurram Khan

reason

This provocative statement challenges the over-reliance on technological solutions, emphasizing the need for a more holistic approach.

impact

It led to a more nuanced discussion about the limitations of technology and the importance of education, policy, and human factors in addressing online child protection.

I think education for adults is more important than education for kids. Because the danger from non-educated adults is much more. They can do much more dangerous mistakes.

speaker

Eugene Kaspersky

reason

This comment offers a counterintuitive perspective, suggesting that adult education is more critical than child education in addressing online risks.

impact

It shifted the focus of the discussion to the role of parents and adults in creating a safe online environment, leading to further exploration of intergenerational digital literacy gaps.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by broadening its scope from immediate concerns about online safety to long-term technological trends, human rights implications, and the limitations of purely technological solutions. They challenged participants to consider the complexity of the issue, emphasizing the need for a multi-stakeholder approach that includes education, policy, and human factors alongside technological solutions. The discussion evolved from a focus on protecting children to empowering them, and highlighted the importance of adult education and intergenerational understanding in addressing online risks for children.

How can we address the digital divide between privileged and underprivileged children?

speaker

Sofiene Hemissi

explanation

This is important to ensure equal opportunities for all children in the digital world.

How can we protect children’s cultural identity and privacy in the digital sphere?

speaker

Sofiene Hemissi

explanation

This is crucial for preserving cultural values and protecting children’s personal information.

How can we develop unified international frameworks and policies for child protection online?

speaker

Sofiene Hemissi

explanation

This is necessary to create consistent protection measures across different countries.

How can we address the manipulation of children through AI and data analysis?

speaker

Sofiene Hemissi

explanation

This is important to protect children from potential exploitation through advanced technologies.

How can we improve digital literacy for parents to better protect their children online?

speaker

Andrei Zarenin

explanation

This is crucial for enabling parents to effectively guide and protect their children in the digital world.

How can we create safe environments that help children adapt to the digital world while minimizing risks?

speaker

Andrei Zarenin

explanation

This is important for balancing the benefits of technology with necessary safety measures.

How can we inspire and encourage children to be better net citizens?

speaker

Syed Munir Khasru

explanation

This is crucial for developing responsible digital behavior in children.

How can we address the challenges posed by emerging technologies like brain-computer interfaces and implanted chips?

speaker

Muhammad Khurram Khan

explanation

This is important to anticipate and prepare for future technological developments that may affect children.

How can we develop global solutions for child online protection that include developing and least developed countries?

speaker

Muhammad Khurram Khan

explanation

This is necessary to ensure comprehensive and inclusive protection measures worldwide.

How can we balance the benefits of technology use with the need to limit screen time for children?

speaker

Eugene Kaspersky

explanation

This is important to promote healthy technology use habits in children.

How can we improve international cooperation to combat child abuse and exploitation online?

speaker

Eugene Kaspersky

explanation

This is crucial for effectively addressing cross-border online threats to children.

How can we develop standards and protocols for child safety that can be easily implemented by small startups and companies?

speaker

Muhammad Khurram Khan

explanation

This is important to ensure consistent safety measures across all digital platforms, regardless of company size.