Regulators, governments and industry include child online safety in the national broadband and digital plans and improve affordable and safe access to digital devices and connectivity for children, especially for disadvantaged and marginalized children.  

We recommend that industry actors:  

• Provide age appropriate and safe online learning resources for free or at a reduced cost to educators and students, including resources accessible to children with disabilities  

• Share child-friendly COVID-19 health info and child online safety advice to support children digital resilience skills  

• Use their platforms to promote and facilitate cost-free child safety referral services and helplines 

• Place child safety at the centre of products development, and ensure that safety tools and features are incorporated into all devices  

• Make online safety resources age-appropriate and easily accessible for parents, caregivers and children  

• Detect and stop harmful activity against children online, use scanning and filtering technology to ensure child user safety and users are not exposed to inappropriate content. 

THE RESOURCES

• ITU Global Network Resiliency Platform (#REG4COVID) 

• GIGA initiative to connect young people to the internet, 2019 

• eSafety's Safety by Design initiative and principles 

• Australia Young People Vision Statement on the role of the industry on keeping children safe online 

• Designing for Children's Rights, global community focused on integrating children's rights into design and business processes 

• Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, Child Online Safety Universal Declaration, 2019 

• Five Country Ministerial, Voluntary Principles to Counter online CSEA, 2020 

• End Violence Stay Safe at Home. Stay Safe Online campaign with key industry players and Five Governments (USA, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia) 

• Technology Coalition Project Protect, 2020 

• ITU Guidelines for industry on Child Online Protection, 2020  

• UNICEF, Why businesses should invest in digital child safety brief, 2019  

• UNICEF guidance and tools for industry on child online protection 

• UNICEF Child Safeguarding Toolkit for Business  

• UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, Digital Connectivity during COVID-19: Access to vital information for every child, 2020 
   

This collection is part of the End Violence Partnership's technical note, COVID-19 and its Implications for Protecting Children Online. 

Pictured above: 10-year-old Noah studies on his computer in Cote D'Ivoire. © UNICEF/UNI317546/Frank Dejongh