IGF 2023 Open Forum #15 Protecting children online with emerging technologies

The purpose of this forum is to explore how to properly regulate the use of emerging technologies to prevent and respond to various forms of safety issues that children encounter online. We will explore in depth how we can support the development of broader policies and interventions to keep children safe online, and explore providing concrete action plans, such as actions that China's Internet industry can take. The discussion will promote the implementation of the requirements of "providing a safe and healthy online environment for minors" stipulated in the Cyber Security Law of the People's Republic of China. The UNICEF released the Policy Guidance 2.0 on AI for Children, a global policy guide for governments and industry, in 2021, which contains practical advice and principles for child-centred AI. How to make good use of emerging technologies such as the Internet, maximize data integration and utilization, maximize protection of children's rights and safety on the Internet, and minimize restrictions and impacts on the healthy growth of children, will be the main topic of this forum. This forum will invite policy makers, industry practitioners, academic researchers and social workers in the field of children’s online protection to discuss together. The forum will provide comprehensive advice on how to use emerging technologies to keep children safe online, based on a full integration of industry, academia and public opinion.
First, the forum will focus on three concerns: (1) What do children and their caregivers think about the online safety issues that children experience online? And what support is needed to keep children safe online? (2) In what ways can emerging technologies protect children from online abuse? For example, image and text identification technology can filter child pornography, intelligent recommendation technology can recommend beneficial content for children, and multi-modal technology can effectively identify children users. (3) How to properly regulate the use of emerging technologies? How to push Internet service providers to protect children's privacy and safety throughout the life cycle of their products? Emerging technologies can bring risks as well as benefits, such as excessive collection of personal information and invasion of privacy.
Second, the challenges and opportunities related to the topic of this forum: with the continuous deepening of global digitization, the Internet is inevitably becoming a part of children's lives, but they may not have the skills to manage the risks that come with using the Internet and the Internet itself. Children face certain risks when using the Internet, including cyberbullying and harassment, excessive use of the Internet, exposure to violent content, and sexual exploitation and abuse. Emerging technologies, as strategic technologies that lead the next generation of technological revolution and industrial transformation, offer great potential for the realization of children's rights in the digital world. In real life, these technologies are often embedded in toys, applications and video games, unknowingly influencing every child's growth. To effectively avoid children suffering from various illegal infringements on the Internet, some companies in the relevant products began to explore the use of emerging technologies to protect children's online safety. For example, the application of emerging technologies in content review can accurately identify content infringing on children's privacy and filter the spread of inappropriate content for children, which will help enterprises to establish a long-term governance mechanism for online content involving children, curb the spread of illegal and undesirable information online, and purify the Internet environment for children.
Finally, this forum will also share the experience of emerging technologies in protecting children's online safety, with a focus on how to ensure that emerging technologies provide protective and supportive services for children's users in the company's internal product development and management policies. At present, many internet companies around the world have integrated different emerging technologies into their products to protect children's online safety. Through experience sharing, we can gain a deeper understanding of the efforts made by internet companies in protecting children's online safety from management, technology, and other perspectives.

Agenda (60 Min):
1. (2 Min) The moderator will introduce the topics of the forum, including the current situation of children’s online trolling, online sexual exploitation and abuse, and will give the topics to be discussed.
2. (8 Min) The head of the organizer will share the results of the survey on children's online safety needs conducted by the UNICEF and the China Federation of Internet Societies (CFIS) this year. Onsite and online participants will be invited to share their views on the online safety issues experienced by children while using Internet, as well as their caregivers, and what support is needed to ensure their online safety.
3. (20 Min) The onsite speakers will share their respective perspectives. The speech topics include but are not limited to: (1) In what ways can emerging technologies protect children from cyberbullying? (2) How to reasonably regulate the use of emerging technologies to ensure children's online safety from different aspects such as policy and governance architecture, judicial capacity building, reporting and referral mechanisms, and education plans?
4. (10 Min) The online speakers will share their respective perspectives. The speech topics include but are not limited to: (1) In what ways can emerging technologies protect children from cyberbullying? (2) How to reasonably regulate the use of emerging technologies to ensure children's online safety from different aspects such as policy and governance architecture, judicial capacity building, reporting and referral mechanisms, and education plans?
5. (5 Min) The invited speakers will share typical cases of emerging technologies in protecting children's online safety.
6. (8 Min) Open discussion and Q&A: all participants onsite and online will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss their viewpoints, and speakers will answer these questions.
7. (5 Min) The chief child protection of the UNICEF will give a concluding speech.
8. (2 Min) The moderator will deliver the closing remarks.

(1) As a hybrid forum, there are both onsite speakers and attendees, as well as online speakers and attendees. In order to attract more attendees, we will invite and encourage people to participate online through Zoom meeting software. The onsite and online moderators will closely cooperate and be responsible for activating the atmosphere of onsite and online discussions, respectively. The online moderator will collect online questions in a timely manner and convey them to the onsite moderator to ensure smooth communication between the onsite and online attendees.
(2) Multiple volunteers will be arranged onsite for video filming to ensure that each speaker's speech video can be live streamed online through Zoom. The moderator and speakers onsite can see the online participants' questions in real-time through the LED screen on site. The online moderator interacts with online attendees, promptly pushing meaningful questions through the screen to the moderator or speakers onsite, and strictly controlling the speaking time to ensure the participation of each speaker and the progress of the forum. In addition, we will promote the forum in advance so that online participants can prepare questions and relevant materials in advance, which may facilitate more interesting discussions onsite.
(3) The organizer will design and create graphic and textual links, promotional posters, etc. around the theme of the forum, and spread them through social media platforms such as WeChat, Twitter, and Facebook to attract more attendees and stimulate everyone's thinking in advance, creating an atmosphere of joint participation.