IGF 2020 Pre-Event #11 Digital Cooperation and Children’s Rights

In June 2019 the UN’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation released their report “The Age of Digital Interdependence” which makes 5 sets of recommendations, among those to “Protect human rights and human agency”. The High-level Panel dedicates a reasonable part of its report to the rights and the safety of children in the digital environment, particularly referring to under 18s as making up one-third of all internet users worldwide. Since January 2019, concurrently to the HLPDC, a group of child rights advocates led by the UK-based 5Rights Foundation has been working on General Comment No 25, which will outline the relevance of the UNCRC with regard to children’s rights in the digital environment. In this session we will discuss the interrelatedness between the General Comment and the HLPDC’s recommendation 3B: “In the face of growing threats to human rights and safety, including those of children, we call on social media enterprises to work with governments, international and local civil society organisations and human rights experts around the world to fully understand and respond to concerns about existing or potential human rights violations.” Together with experts from the UN, government representatives and representatives from national coalitions on children’s rights, we will elaborate on practical steps as to how the recommendations from the HLPDC can be operationalized in order to respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights in the digital environment.

Speakers:
* Baroness Beeban Kidron
* Prof. Sonia Livingstone, OBE
* Dr Amanda Third
* Jutta Croll
* Tarique Kenny
* Prof. Olga Khazova & Amal Aldoseri, members of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, co-chairs of the Working Group