Geneva: International Communication Union (ITU) on Thursday launched a new initiative to safeguard children, the most vulnerable users of the Internet.

The initiative 'Child Online Protection' (Cop) aims to identify key risks and vulnerabilities to children in cyberspace, create awareness of the issues, develop and promote practical tools to minimise risk, share knowledge and experience and to facilitate international partnerships.

Cop brings together partners from all sectors of the international community with the aim of creating a safe and secure online experience for children everywhere, ITU said in a statement.

Addressing ITU's high-level meeting on cybersecurity by video message, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "We have to protect against cyber threats, especially when they target children. I welcome the ITU's 'Child Online Protection' initiative and urge all states to support it."

As a platform for global cooperation through Cop, ITU aims to coordinate efforts behind protecting children online and make them more effective and accessible.

Promoting the rights of children is central to the mandate of Unicef, as Associate Director of Unicef in Geneva Pascal Villeneuve pointed out, "Issues around the protection of children increasingly involve some kind of online component. We welcome the initiative to combine expertise in combating cybercrime against children."

United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) Executive Director Sandro Calvani said, "UNICRI is proud to take part in the ITU initiative on Child Online Protection, acting in partnership with other agencies from the UN family."

Along with UN agencies, eWWG, a consortium of 37 international companies and universities has come forward to support the initiative.

Citing optimism about the initiative, eWWG Founder and Chairman Salma Abbasi said, "By focusing our collective efforts on making the online world safe for children, we have the opportunity to really make a difference, especially in developing countries."

Besides organisations, such as the European Network and Information Security Agency (Enisa), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the GSM Association, companies like Intel, Microsoft and Telecom Italia have also pledged their support to the initiative.

It is vitally important that children across the world can go online safely and ITU's Cop initiative is a significant step in that direction, GSMA CEO Rob Conway said.

"Our support for this global initiative is part of a broader effort by our members to work with governments and other stakeholders to prevent mobile networks worldwide from being used to endanger children," he added.

Other agencies, like the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, Interpol and Save The Children have also have also shown their support to this initiative.

"Interpol is committed to fighting Internet-related crimes against children, which it has set as one of the top priorities for international policing," Interpol's Trafficking in Human Beings Sub-Directorate Assistant Director Kristin Kvigne said.

To achieve this priority, Interpol was working globally with partners and supports initiatives like Cop to raise awareness and focus on the need to act locally and think globally to ensure the online protection of children, Kvigne added.

"We all have a special responsibility to ensure the safety and security of our young people in the offline world just as we do in the online one in this new digital age.  Children are indeed our future," ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said.

ITU plans to hold the first World Congress on Child Online Protection in 2009 in Geneva.
—iGovernment Bureau