The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) shared new guidelines for Children Online Protection, the ITU mention the risk of how children will be affected by being online in the age of Covid-19 pandemic.
The new online child protection policy is the requirement of the time to take safety measures against unlawful acts. The safety of the children is the safety of the future and security is the most precious gift we can give them at such age.
According to ITU children are a very easy target for cybercriminals and they will find a wide variety of unsafe and harmful material online. The newly developed suggestions and recommendations for children’s safety are distributed to every concern depart which includes educators, parents, industry and policymakers.
Due to COVID-19 majority of the toddlers have the latest technology in their hands and before the novel coronavirus children were allowed to go online after coming of age but in these conditions, kids get online at a very young age which increases the chance of exposing them to unauthorized websites and materials uploaded on those sites. So these guidelines can contribute in a positive way in society and develop a safe and authorizing online environment for children and young generations.
Through the internet, you can learn something new, communicate with others, play games, enjoy music, and a lot of other skill enhancing activities.
According to the United Nations’ Special Representative on Violence against Children shared shocking stats which revealed that in 2019 almost 70 million children videos and pictures were reported to the United Nations central center for Missing and Exploiting Children which is a 50% increase as compared to 2018.
Cases of sexual exploitation and online child abuse are increasing
The UN representative also identified that child abuse through live streaming also needs to be tackled.
One of the main facts behind the increase in online engagement is schools are closed and children are spending more time online.
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