COP WSIS Forum 2011

In line with Res. 179 (Guadalajara, 2010), ITU has entered into a second phase of concrete activities under the COP Global Initiative, launched by the ITU Secretary-General in November 2010 together with a new COP patron, H.E. Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica. Through this Initiative, high-level deliverables are designed based on the five GCA/COP strategic pillars to be achieved by ITU in collaboration with COP members.

In June 2012, as an outcome of the ITU Regional Workshop on Legal Aspects of Child Online Protection in the Arab Region, the Arab administrations decided to create a regional working group in order to develop a regional legal framework on COP for the Arab region.

In its continuing mission on raising awareness on COP issues through the organization of workshops, ITU-IMPACT organized an Arab region cybersecurity workshopin July 2012, in Jordan. More than ten Arab States participated in the workshopand they addressed key topics such as botnets, Child Online Protection (COP) and mobile security.

In October, during the ITU Telecom World 2012 in Dubai, ITU in partnership with The Cyber Guardian organized a workshop on “Locking the Digital Door - Protecting the Privacy of Children Online” with the aim to highlight how the recent and unforeseen increase of mobile application stores together with the expansion of social networks are exposing children to new vulnerabilities such as inappropriate material, grooming, luring, cyberbullying, harassment and discrimination.

Since October 2012, ITU is working in partnership with the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization (CTO) to facilitate the establishment of COP National Frameworks for 6 countries - Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Mauritius and Cameroon. This high level process will consist of 5 phases: Assessment phase, Definition of Country Plans, Finalization of Country Plans, Implementation Phase and Monitoring & Evaluation.

Moreover, ITU in partnership with the IWF (Internet Watch Foundation) has developed a template that will enable countries which currently have no provision to access the expertise and resources of the IWF to establish efficient and cost effective methods of fighting against online child sexual abuse content.

In December 2012, ITU started producing country profiles with countries’ legislation, strategy and other documentation as well as listing governmental institutions giving support to national COP initiatives. The availability of these profiles in our website will be helpful to countries still building their COP framework and to strengthen COP efforts over the world.

Last but not least, the ITU Secretary-General Dr. HamadounTouré has been appointed Patron of the Global CyberLympics, a series of ethical hacking games involving both offensive and defensive security challenges. The CyberLympics mission is based on Capacity Building, Raising Awareness, Global Peace and Child Online Protection. The purpose of the competition was to establish effective cybersecurity partnerships across borders. As of today, the Games involved 220 teams and brought together 1200 participants from 51 countries.

III. Upcoming events

Later in May this year, ITU will be seeking support from member states and COP Partners to organize thematic workshops during the Forum of World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS) to raise awareness and share knowledge on Child Online Protection.

Following the growing interest within the African continent on COP related issues, and in response to requests from countries to provide assistance, ITU and COP Partners are organizing an Africa Child Online Protection (ACOP) Summit, which will be held Uganda from 6 to 9 June 2013.The vision of the ACOP summit is to educate young people to make informed decisions, and encourage them to use digital technologies in a way that supports their personal development and the socio-economic development of the societies in which they live. The aim of the summit is to lay the foundations for the implementation of national, regional and international COP policies, instruments and tools. In other words, the scope is not just to talk about COP, but to put into place practical ways that allow the children of Africa to enjoy the benefits of ICTs in their online environment.

The outcome of the ACOP Summit will feed into the Global Youth Summit 2013 - Change Your World:this conference is organized under the Patronage of the President of Costa Rica and will take place from 9-11 September 2013 in Costa Rica.

The Conference will focus on ICT access and create a meaningful global platform that brings youth together to join forces and create solutions for social good, enabled through widespread access to information and communication technologies (ICTs).

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