The Child Protection in Cyberspace
(CPC) Global Summit will take place 2-3 October, in Riyadh, bringing together
key stakeholders from around the world to collaborate to ensure children are
safe and protected in Cyberspace. The Summit is being held in collaboration
with the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Global
Cybersecurity Forum (GCF), the DQ
Institute, and WeProtect Global
Alliance.
“Protecting
children online is a shared responsibility,” said ITU Secretary-General Doreen
Bogdan-Martin. “With today’s children spending an increasing amount of time
online, it is more crucial than ever to protect and empower them. The Child
Protection in Cyberspace Global Summit will bring together leaders from all
sectors to ensure our youngest users can thrive online.”
Held in conjunction with the GCF
Annual Meeting 2024, the Summit will convene leading figures from government,
international organizations, academia, and the private sector to explore
multistakeholder collaboration to enhance child protection in Cyberspace. The
second day of the Summit will culminate in a high-level roundtable around the
theme of ‘Advancing Collective Action for Child Protection in Cyberspace’.
"We must
work together to make the internet a safe place for children to learn,
socialize and express themselves,” said Catherine Russell, Executive
Director of UNICEF. “This Summit marks an important opportunity to
coordinate global efforts to maximize the benefits of digital technology in
children’s lives while protecting them from harm.”
The Summit aims to achieve four key
objectives: consolidating global efforts and advancing collective
action; enhancing the global response to pressing challenges; mitigating
emerging threats facing children in Cyberspace; and ensuring that CPC resonates
with the agenda of global decision makers. These
objectives are in line with the goals of the Child
Protection in Cyberspace (CPC) initiative, and support the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals 4, 5, 16 and 17, under the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development.
“We are
gathering in Riyadh because we all recognize that, as the risks to children in
Cyberspace grow in number and complexity, we must collaborate to develop
innovative forms of partnerships to advance our collective efforts to protect
them,” said H.E. Majed bin Mohammed Al-Mazyed, Governor of Saudi Arabia’s
National Cybersecurity Authority, speaking on behalf of the GCF Board of
Trustees.
The event will focus on finding
pathways towards a safer Cyberspace for children, including designing new
collaborative approaches and mechanisms to enhance responsiveness and navigate
the threats presented by emerging technologies.
“What
we need today is coordinated, multistakeholder collaboration that enhances not
only children’s safety and well-being in Cyberspace, but also their cyber literacy, as our highest priority,” said Dr. Yuyhun Park, founder of the DQ Institute.
A 2022 GCF global report found that 72% of children
worldwide have experienced at least one type of cyber threat, with the most
prevalent threats being unwanted ads and inappropriate images and content. In
addition, nearly one in five children said they faced bullying or unwanted
sexual approaches.
“Child
exploitation is an urgent and growing problem. We need to focus on preventing
harm and work together for a Cyberspace that is designed to be safer to protect
children across the globe from exploitation,” said Iain Drennan, Executive Director of WeProtect Global Alliance.
