Information & Communications Technology & Child Sexual Exploitation - Girls - UN Report

REPORT OF THE OFFICE OF THE UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Serious issues for girls and young women.

Direct Link to Full 17-Page 2015 Report: http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/31/34

VII. Conclusion and Recommendations

75. While OHCHR notes that efforts have been made at different levels to ensure effective laws and policies to protect children from sexual exploitation online, it is fundamental that States:

(a) Ratify all relevant regional and international instruments regarding the sale and sexual exploitation of children online;

(b) Establish clear and comprehensive legal frameworks to prohibit and to criminalize all forms of sale and sexual exploitation of children online;

(c) Improve coordination through effective multi-stakeholder engagement bringing together relevant State agencies, non-governmental organizations and representatives of industry; at a general level, a multi-stakeholder platform should be put in place to propose a safe, inclusive and empowering digital agenda for children;

(d) Strengthen support for services responsible for the identification of victims, as well as for the detection, investigation, prosecution and punishment of those responsible for any offences committed;

(e) Ensure that children – both girls and boys, as well as children in vulnerable or marginalized situations – are consulted in order to take into account their views and experiences in developing laws, policies and programmes relating to digital media and ICTs;

(f) Promote and facilitate international and regional coordination and collaboration to ensure effective enforcement of the applicable legal framework;

(g) Establish a permanent global task force to harmonize practices and procedures, share expertise and scale-up good practices, and to provide States with assistance in developing national laws, policies and strategies to effectively combat online child sexual exploitation;

(h) Encourage public-private partnerships to promote the use of ICT to support children’s access to information on their rights and to facilitate their participation in the shaping of policies, programmes and services concerning them;

(i) Coordinate with the ICT industry so that it develops and puts in place adequate measures to protect children from the risks posed by ICT. Where such risks are detected, States and industry should work together to provide prompt and effective procedures for the removal of prejudicial or harmful material involving children. States should comply with the ITU/UNICEF Guidelines for Industry on Child Online Protection;

(j) Further strengthen awareness-raising and education programmes for children on preventing and responding to risks when they use digital media and ICT, with the involvement of children, including through the development of child-friendly information material; this should include programmes on privacy risks related to the use of digital media and ICT and regarding self-generated content; A/HRC/31/34

(k) Promote action to empower educators and parents to accompany and support children in acquiring skills to live in the digital environment;

(l) Provide adequate and continuous training for law enforcement personnel, members of the judiciary and professionals working with and for children with the aim to enhance their technical skills;

(m) Ensure accessible, safe, confidential, age-appropriate, child-friendly and effective reporting channels, such as child helplines, for reporting violations of children’s rights in relation to digital media and ICT; this should include the provision of safe, child-friendly and confidential points of contact for children to report self-generated sexual content to the relevant authority;

(n) Strengthen coordination between all actors and sectors in the protection system ensuring referral of cases and effective support to children victims; this should include the development of a child protection strategy that ensures that the protection and care of victims is paramount in investigations and that sets out good practices in the handling of victims;

(o) Empower and provide adequate resources to national institutions responsible for guaranteeing human rights to allow them to play a key role in monitoring child online sexual exploitation; such institutions should have a specific mandate to address the rights of children in relation to digital media and ICT, and be able to receive, investigate and address complaints by children in a child-sensitive manner, ensure the privacy and protection of victims, and undertake monitoring, follow-up and verification activities for child victims;

(p) Conduct action-oriented research into the perpetrators of online abuse, the ways in which children are victimized online, and the factors that make individuals more vulnerable, with a view to prevent abuse and strengthen professional responses to victims in terms of investigation, rescue, recovery and reintegration.

Извор: WUNRN – 17.02.2016