Child Safety on the Net



Symposium on Children’s Computing Safety

Co-sponsored by Microsoft Corporation, National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, and UNICEF

June 29, 2005

Cairo - Egypt

This Symposium is dedicated to raising awareness of the increased use of the Internet by children and the importance to educate parents, teachers and young people on ways to have a positive experience while using the Internet. Young people are taught how to use the computer, how to browse the Internet, but they also need to be taught about the potential risks they may encounter and what to do. They need to know that not everyone on the Internet is who they say they are.

The Symposium is designed to bring together government officials, law enforcement authorities, educators, media, children, industry partners and children’s organizations from across the Middle East Region, to enhance online safety for all computer users, especially children.

As more families use the Internet as a part of their everyday lives in today's homes, the potential for abuse increases. It is increasingly important for computer users, policy makers and others to better understand the risks that children could encounter online and the challenges facing law enforcement authorities in countries in the Middle East and world-wide.

The agenda included; opening remarks by Ali Faramawy, VP EMEA & Regional Director Microsoft Middle East & Africa; Keynote speeches by Baron Daniel Cardon; Vice Chair of the International Center for Missing & Exploited Children; Amb Moushira Khattab; Secretary General, National Council for Motherhood & Childhood, Egypt; this was followed by panel discussions and break out sessions to discuss and highlight the Multi-Stakeholders role to help ensure a safe & secure environment on the Net; An Agenda setting

Sessions report:

The opening speech was delivered by Mr. Aly el Faramawy, VP Microsoft who addressed the issue of child safety on the net as a growing concern stressed on the efforts done by the company to ensure child safety on the net and highlighted that as much as nations strive to empower the youth through the use of ICT, nevertheless it is essential to identify the risks that face the youth and children and find ways to combat them. Microsoft has identified three focus areas which are technology solutions, enforcement and education.

Mr. Faramawy introduced the symposium and its objectives as well as the distinguished speakers who represent different stakeholders and highlighted the importance of collaboration and partnership among different sectors and stakeholders including government, private sector, civil society as well as technology companies.

Speakers were encouraged to share their experience, findings and challenges with the participants in order to promote best practice.

Baron Daniel Cardon, Vice Chair of the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children addressed the participants and presented the activities of the Center and how it grew from a one man organization into a strong pressure group for the rights of children with over 50 employees and 2000 volunteers. He also discussed the contribution of organizations like Child Focus, in Belgium, the organization he helped found, in helping children.

Cardon highlighted the spread of the internet as a daily tool for children that simplifies the contact between children and abusers and that the issue of child safety needs to be addressed and identified number of recommendations for action:

1. people in charge should work together in partnership

2. launch a global campaign for awareness raising

3. build capacities in Europe and elsewhere to combat net crimes against children

4. create a global network of operations centers

Amb. Moshira Khattab, Secretary General of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood started her speech with an important notion about the importance of the symposium as it lead to breaking the wall of silence and allowed for the transparent discussions of the issue of child safety on the net as one of the global concerns.

In realization of the importance of the Internet as an educational tool for the children, Amb. Khattab stressed on the fact that we need to work on maximizing the opportunities and benefits while minimizing the associated risks. She stressed on the role of technology companies to introduce technology solutions to combat and minimize cyber crime and at the same time the role of government in legislation development and implementation.

Amb. Khattab concluded her address by highlighting three main recommendations:

1. importance of raising awareness at the family level to protect the children

2. IT companies should develop a “code of ethics” to block usage of children in illegal crimes on the Internet

3. child safety on the Internet is a result of a strong partnership between private sector, governments and civil society

First panel: Multi Stakeholders Role

The panel included a number of speakers representing government, NGO, media and technology companies.

Ms. Reem Morsi from ECPAT addressed the public and introduced the activities conducted by ECPAT in combating child abuse in 73 participating countries, she identified that child abuse is an international phenomenon that targets children who are:

1. low economic and social standards

2. isolated from the family

3. has a drive for interaction

4. vulnerable to peer pressure

5. family problems

The following forms of abuse are identified to target children on the Internet:

1. sexual abuse and involving children in child pornography

2. bullying which led to the suicide of children in a number of cases

3. physiological maneuvering which leads to children being involved of illicit activities with adults

Ms. Morsi stressed the importance of awareness on the family and institutional levels and requested the establishment of a regional mechanism for exchange and sharing of knowledge and experiences in the area of child safety on the net.

Dr. Sherif Hashim from the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in Egypt presented valuable statistics about the use of the Internet in Egypt where the results of the survey indicated that there are around 1.2 million child use the net in Egypt and that 46% of the internet usage is for entertainment purposes and 18% of internet users use for chatting which reflects the importance of having certain measures to ensure child safety on the net.

Egypt has started to address the legislative issues related to the laws regulating the use of the Internet and electronic media. The first step in this legislative reform is issuing the law of digital signature. Dr. Hashem also stressed the importance of raising awareness and technology solutions as two important factors that would minimize the risks related to the use of the Internet by children.

Larry Magid, a columnist for CBS News and a number of USA newspapers and also President of identified a number of risks related to the use of the Internet by children.

1. physical molestation due to giving out personal information

2. harassment and bulling due to not knowing who is on the other end

3. legal and financial difficulties due giving out credit card information

4. adult predators

Mr. Magid highlighted an important finding that 21% of the arrested offenders stated that the children complied and agreed to willingly go with their abusers. He also expressed that 64% of perpetuators communicated with their victims for a long period of time to create trust. Accordingly, Mr. Magid recommended the importance of raising awareness among parents to enable them to guide and “parent” their children in the cyber world to create a “mental filter”, in addition to the importance of enforcing legislation and implementing technology solutions.

On the side of technology Ms. Pam Portin, Director of Children Online Safety at Microsoft Corporation shared the company’s vision with regard to child safety which is focused on partnerships in these areas:

➢ Technology solutions including parental control and filters and the provision of free security downloads and information on the web sites to help protect the youth

➢ Enforcement and policy, where a children exploitation tracking system was developed in collaboration with Toronto police to speed up investigations. This dimension also included conducting training for law enforcers where the first program in the Middle East Region was conducted in Jordan, and in raising public awareness through events like the Symposium.

➢ Consumer guidance and education to conduct training for children and parents.

Break out session

Legislation and Law Enforcement

Chair Baron Daniel Cardon

The session was chaired by Baron Daniel Cardon who introduced the topic of the session and introduced the speaker.

The first speaker Colonel Fadel Hamoud from the Jordanian Police introduced the national experience in Jordan related to the institutionalization of child protection legislations and acts inJordan, where a special unit for family protection was established in 1997 and up till 2003 it was operational only in Amman with a plan to expand to all regions of Jordan by 2006.

The reported cases were increasing over the years, where in 1998 there were 295 reported cases and in 2003 it reached 1178 and in 2004 it reached 1423 cases.

The unit basically dealt with cases of:

➢ Physical harm

➢ Neglect

➢ Sexual abuse

Col. Hamoud summarized the methodology of work as:

➢ Privacy in investigation

➢ Specialized doctors for medical checkup of the reported cases

➢ Psychiatrist to follow up on cases

➢ DNA testing

➢ Social workers to study the reasons for assault

➢ Awareness services

Concerning committing violence crimes against youth using the internet, Col. Hamoud indicated that so far it is not wide spread though it is expected to increase with the increase in the use of computers and internet. In order prepare the police department to face such a threat, a workshop for the prevention of child crime on the Internet was held for a number of police officers with the strong support of the government. The first Arab Region ICMEC/Interpol Training, sponsored by Microsoft, for law enforcement was held in Amman in early June. The Col. Also highlighted the importance of collaboration and coordination between government institutions, law enforcement agencies and the civil society to face this problem.

The second speaker, Mr. Naser Ali Khasawneh, addressed the issue of legislation in the United Arab Emirates and the current situation regarding combating abuse of youth on the internet.

He indicated that the issue is not to come up with new legislation as much as it is related to the adaptation of existing legislations to accommodate new mediums of crime. He stressed that the crime itself is not new, it is the medium that needs to be addressed. He highlighted the positive points about the existing laws in terms of protection of youth under the ages of 7 and 15 where punishment is severe.

Emirates has enacted a law related to electronic dealings to organize electronic business and issued a cyber crime law lately.

Mr. Khasawneh also highlighted the importance of collaboration on all levels including government, legislators, law enforcement and the civil society as well as parents, teachers and youth about the risks related to the use of the internet. He also stressed the important role of technology companies in terms of sharing best practices and the provision of the technological solutions to minimize the risk of the internet including the implementation of filters on search engines.

The third speaker in the session was Mr. Mohamed Al Kammali who also highlighted the legal efforts undertaken in Emirates regarding the regulation of the use of Internet and expressed that the Emirates is one of the countries that works continuously to update the laws to combat new types of crimes.

Considering the fact that based on a number of statistics, 80% of youth using the Internet are willing to give out confidential information about themselves and their families. Mr. Kammali summarized the actions that seemed of immediate importance as follows:

• Stress on the importance of immediate implementation of court orders

• Banning obscene Internet sites

• The importance of signing multilateral agreements to tackle cross border Internet crimes

• Initiating a pilot project in the Arab region for Internet and technology related crimes

• Creation of special centers for the rehabilitation of abused youth

• Utilization of DNA testing

Break out session

Education and Awareness: Role of NGOs, Government, Private Sector, Media, School and Family

Chair

Mr. Larry Magid

The session was chaired by Mr. Larry Magid, President of and Media Consultant on New Technology and Computing Saftey.

Mr. Magid opened the session by stressing on two main points;

➢ The compelling need for educating the population on Child safety

➢ The need to hear from the floor as well as the panel on recommendations, ideas and tools to provide for Child Safety on the Net

Ms. Maha El Khatib, Executive Director, Jordan River Foundation, Jordan, spoke first on the situation in Jordan and indicated the following;

This issue, Child Safety on the Net and violence against children, in that form is definitely a new concept and in turn is not well faced at the time, she stressed the importance of taking the necessary measures and means towards providing for child safety on the internet, indicating the importance of unifying efforts and making use of successful experiences in the MENA Region. She indicated the following are issues we have to look into carefully;

➢ Protection programs in Jordan, depends mainly on societal interaction and sharing, and stressed on the importance of portraying and reflecting societal needs.

➢ Jordan has evident efforts in promoting IT in Schools at this point there is one computer for every 5 students and that is in public schools a matter that indicates the increase in subjection to internet and the new technology.

➢ Access to the internet is continuous and growing

➢ There are no clear programs on safety and protection a matter that has to be addressed carefully not only in Jordan but in the Arab world in general.

➢ Stressing the importance of parental education to reinforce their supervision and control over Internet usage.

➢ The importance of creating an interactive relationship between parents and children.

➢ Police control and legislation regarding crimes and abuse against children on the Internet is still negligible.

➢ Microsoft should direct the general public and all those in the field towards funding for development and implementation of educational programs on the issue of child protection and safety.

Finally she concluded her talk by opening the door for collaboration and indicated willingness to learn from other successful programs and experiences in the region vis a vis child safety on the Internet.

Laiali Badr, Director of Youth Programs, ART, spoke next, portraying their experience at ART with youth programs, produced and directed by youth, i.e. a true reflection of the youth and children needs, ideas and inclinations.

She stressed on the importance of the role of the media, shaping and forming our children’s characters.

She indicated the harms of too much exposure to TV and the Internet without proper calculations of the dangers that might arise from that.

Ms. Badr stressed on the following points;

➢ Importance of opening the door for learning about our children and learning from them

➢ The absence of democracy in the home leads to raising kids who are unable to express themselves

➢ Children run to the Internet for the following reasons

o Knowledge

o Entertainment

o Passing time

o Comfort and sharing with friends through chatting due to the absence of this kind of relationship in the home

➢ Importance of expressing the Arab identity which was lost along the years

➢ Clearing our children’s minds of the confusion that is created by too much exposure to the West copying blindly from them

➢ Current programs and media promotes a culture of violence as all the cartoons we watch are imported from the West and are not reflective of our Arab culture and tradition

➢ Drama stereotypes kids and students in a passive manner this needs to be changed

Finally she closed by the following recommendations:

➢ Using celebrities from young generation to direct messages to the children

➢ Signing an International Media Protocol for selection of programs contents and time of airing and rating procedures

➢ Importance of issuing the conferences recommendations and including a part concerning legislation and laws governing the media to protect children and immune them against the dangers of the new technology

The third speaker, Dr. Sherif Kamel, Professor at the American University in Cairo, started by a question, How to create a child friendly Internet?

He looks at the issue as a partnership for action. The Internet is not only about technology, it is a social activity, a meeting place and a knowledge repository as well. These partners who are all responsible for the action are:

➢ Children

➢ Families

➢ Media

➢ Governments

➢ Schools

➢ Industry

The solution according to Dr. Kamel could be presented by the industry to avoid the harms of the new technology. Dr. Kamel gave interesting figures re Internet users from different parts of the world most frequent uses for the Internet, knowledge, research, email, chatting and other transactions.

Dr. Kamel stressed the importance of avoiding the three Cs:

1. Commercial use – the abuse of personal information listed on the Internet in any form

2. Content – obscene or bad content

3. Contacts – importance of identifying who is on the other part of the line

Dr. Kamel presented parts of a case study presented by a graduate student addressing the issue of kids on the Net and how to provide safety for them. The case study stressed on technological and non technological methods as follows:

➢ Filtering, rating, green spaces, this would be covered by the role of the family, media, and legislative bodies

➢ Educating parents to meet the challenge of the new technologies that they are not very familiar with and can not face in return

➢ Educating children on the harms of the internet and how to avoid bad exposure

➢ Providing the tools for parents and adults to assist the children in avoiding the dangers of the Internet

Dr. Kamel gave a couple of personal tips:

1. Training the parents to prepare them for helping their children

2. Fostering a culture of sharing that will help eliminate problems before they arise

In conclusion he said we need to keep surfing safe by;

1. building partnerships among all different concerned bodies and unifying efforts

2. Never prohibiting the use of Internet as this will only increase the digital divide and will not eliminate the problem

3. Providing safe cyber space

4. Protecting children on the Net is more difficult then off the net as they more knowledge than adults in that area

5. Investing in the people (families-parents) is the key

On a final positive note, Dr. Kamel indicated that from an IT perspective there is no ideal solution just attempts to provide the safest environment possible for our children.

Final speaker was Ms. Shereen Meharg, RM Child Protection and Trust worthy Computer Manger, Microsoft, UK. Ms. Shereen discussed several best practices in Europe attempting to address child safety on the net. Ms. Meharg discussed ten of those experiences in France, Spain, UK, Belgium and Germany.

She stressed on the importance of learning from these experiences while adapting each and every program towards the needs of the different countries to best address their problems.

She indicated the importance of unifying efforts and fruitful collaboration with International Law Enforcement Agencies.

The plan for the future is to:

➢ Role out successful practices and experiences

➢ Increase reach to parents to better educate them and create the necessary awareness

➢ Include protection programs and means in early phases of education to avoid the problem before it arises

➢ Creating and building a more clear and evident power for police forces on the web

Mr. Larry Magid opened the floor for discussion and questions stressing the importance of including these discussions in the recommendations.

Interventions

# 1 The Issue of Education

The main issue is including children in the decision making process, this takes us to the issue of education and building new initiatives that help develop different methods and means of education that could help build and produce more critical thinkers and active kids rather than passive recipients as with the current situation of the educational system the Arab World.

# 2 Societal Changes in the Arab World

Why children go to the Internet? The situation with regards to the Arab Child is different and has to be addressed differently, the reasons for the Arab Child mainly are due to

1. Lack of role models

2. lack of parental guidance and sharing due to the absence of the fathers mainly on work in other countries

3. Poverty

4. Lack of feeling of belonging

5. Deterioration in the whole belief and tradition system

Solutions

1. Revisiting and reinforcing our traditions and belief system

2. Educating kids and families to the proper use of the Internet

3. Issue of Internet governenance and importance of international movement towards providing for laws and legislation to prevent crimes and violence over the Internet

# 3 Collaboration and partnership

A recommendation for unifying efforts and building bridges among different concerned parties to maximize results and reach a wider base re education or elimination of dangers. The importance of creating a network to coordinate and revise all material presented to our children through the different mediums.

# 4 Harmful effects of Media Exposure

This recommendation was for limiting our children use of technology in general to take them back to reading and sports.

# 5 Awareness

This recommendation stressed on the importance of creating awareness through programs for parents and children, indicating the importance of targeting children and educating them on the issue of safety. Importance of providing our children with the tools alongside the education.

Partnership with the Industry is also crucial, as the industry has a great penetration rate to the kids.

Also the importance of collaboration and unifying efforts with law enforcement agencies.

# 6 Medical implications

A speaker from the audience also noted that the medical harm of exposure to TV and computer screens should also be noted.

# 7 Media Impact

Importance of choice of messages that are sent to our kids through the media. The most crucial years in the learning process are the first 6 years of age we should be very selective of what is presented to our kids and how it is presented.

Break out session

Technology Solution: Role of Private Sector

Chair

Mr. Mohamed Sultan

The session was chaired by Mr. Mohamed Sultan, Chief Products Officer, LinkdotNet.

The first speaker was Mr. Nizar Zakka, Coordinator for IJMA3. He underlined the importance of awareness with the NGO’s at this stage as the topic is very new in Region. He also pointed out that no good solution can be found without a very good cooperation between the different players around this issue, the Government, the ISPs, the NGO and the software industry. He also supported the idea of having charters or codes of ethics in places between the different parties involved (Parents/Children – ISPs – Software/hardware industry….). He came up with the idea of rating the websites from the child safety perspective.

The second speaker was Mr. Amine Trabelsi, Technical Chief officer of the internet department at Maroc Telecom. Mr. Trabelsi started his speech by focusing on parent awareness. He stated that in many countries in our region the parents do not have the necessary knowledge to fulfill properly their role as parents when technology is concerned. Therefore, he thinks that special attention should paid to the education of the parents on the internet.

He also shared with the attendees the experience that Maroc Telecom is having with the sale of parental control software to the subscribers to internet in Morocco. He suggested that this software could very quickly become available for free. He expressed also the necessity of having a clear legal framework to tackle properly the issue of child safety on the net and recommended that the government adopt specific laws for cyber criminology. Concerning the responsibility of ISPs, Mr. Trabelsi explained that an ISP cannot control everything but agrees that they should take action when they are informed about wrongdoings coming from a site they host or an e-mail address registered with them.

The last speaker was Mr. Cormac Callanan, Secretary General of In-Hope (Internet Hotline Providers). Mr. Callanan presented his association and shared with the attendees experiences from abroad, mainly from Europe. He expressed his willingness to extend his activities to countries in the Arab region, starting by Egypt. He is also encouraging the countries to have a specific legislation dedicated to cyber criminology in order to have these crimes recognized and ease any legal action when necessary. Awareness is also a key point for Mr. Callanan especially in countries when the topic is still new.

Below are the recommendations of the session:

1. NGO’s awareness – Important

2. Rating for web sites

3. Code of ethics (Parents/children) (ISPs)

4. Awareness of parents

5. Encourage the governments to have a dedicated law for cyber crime

6. ISP to provide filters

7. Report to law enforcement and take the appropriate measures when necessary

Symposium on Children’s Computing Safety

Final Recommendations

1) Recommendation # 1: Include the issue of children’s computing safety as an official chapter in the UN Study on Violence Against Children.

2) Recommendation # 2; Include the issue of children’s computing safety as one of the thematic areas in the country reports.

3) Recommendation # 3: Creation of a high level Regional consortium to develop strategic initiatives on children’s computing safety issues.

4) Recommendation # 4: Participation, in the national committee for child protection, of a team that comprised of a cross-group of impacted stakeholders to address the issues of computing safety for children, such as: government; law enforcement; teachers; parents; NGOs, media and corporate partners. 

5) Recommendation # 5: Governments should review their current laws as they pertain to penalties for crimes against children, and work to pass legislation to increase penalties for such crimes, in recognition of the seriousness of the crime. There should be Issuance of laws and legislation on the cyber laws and child protection on the net, where no laws currently exist.

6) Recommendation # 6: Development of education and public awareness programs for children, parents, families, teachers and other groups who work with children and technology, with media, NGOs, industry and others collaborating on developing information on both the benefits and potential risks of using the Internet. Ministries of Education and Information should enforce standards and training for educators and require that education solutions regarding computer use include education on computing safety and child protection. Additionally, Ministry of Information should develop programs and PSA addressing violence against children on the net, promoting creating a safe technological environment for child to ensure that maximization of benefits for children.

7) Recommendation # 7: Industry organizations should work with their local law enforcement to support investigations of crimes against children that are impacted by Internet use.

8) Recommendation # 8: Industry, in collaboration with government and other stakeholders, should provide and abide by the standards for child protection.  Industry should be encouraged to provide educational awareness in addition to technology solutions.  

9) Recommendation #9: Form a high level committee chaired by Egypt’s First Lady Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak to lead a regional movement of helping to protect children in the cyber world.

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