Making Child Online Safety a Reality: Global Toolkit launched

Step-by-step roadmap for policymakers to deliver the online world that young people deserve launched, to make child online safety a reality.

We are excited to share with you our roadmap for keeping kids safe online, the Making Child Online Safety a Reality Toolkit. This is a hands-on, comprehensive how-to guide for making the online world free from harm for children. It builds on existing international agreements, and brings together best practices:

• 5 things every policymaker needs to know to enshrine child online safety into law and practice.
• 10 Policy Action Areas with detailed roadmaps and key practical steps needed to make child online safety a reality.
• A model policy that policymakers can adopt and adapt to create bespoke country policies.
• Downloadable worksheets to create a bespoke policy fit for practice.

The Toolkit will enable policymakers to build, review or improve their policies and practices with respect to children’s rights in the digital world.

The Toolkit is freely accessible to download and as an interactive PDF at childonlinesafetytoolkit.org.

It is available in the following languages: English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, Russian, Khmer, and Brazilian Portuguese.

The Toolkit was designed by 5Rights Foundation with practitioners and young people around the world, and supported by End Violence’s Safe Online initiative. Learn more about what this Toolkit will mean for children’s rights in the digital world by watching this video:

Together with Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex and representatives from the African Union, United Nations, European Union and End Violence the Toolkit was launched during a virtual event hosted by Alisha, Nidhi, Tarique and Vivien, our brilliant Young Advocates. 

If you weren’t able to join us for the launch event, more details are here, and you can watch the entire event here: https://vimeo.com/710752313

Highlights from the event include:

Nick Martlew, Executive Director, 5Rights Foundation said: “The Toolkit is a How-To-Guide for a vision that we all share. Now, it’s about putting that vision into reality.”

Vivien Farkas-Haholt, 5Rights Young Advocate said: “Give us young people the power to make a change for our own futures. Sometimes we look at things that are happening on the internet, and we feel helpless, because we’re not given that power to make a change for ourselves. And I think all we need is action.”

Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex said: “We now understand that many of these systems are by design, aiming to keep our kids hooked on these products for years to come. Regardless of how their time online impacts their self-confidence, self-worth or safety.” Adding: “We need new laws, like the laws that 5Rights Foundation is working to shape in the UK, EU and here in California. We need public pressure. We need strong leadership. And we need continued research into what some of the biggest companies in the world are hiding behind closed doors.”

H.E. Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid, African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy said: “We want to make sure that policy makers and the different stakeholders have something in hand to guide them through the best way to implement policies.”

Jutta Urpilainen, EU Commissioner for International Partnerships said: “We must ensure that children can safely and actively shape their digital lives. Together we must ensure that youth are empowered for the future — and the present.”

Dr. Howard Taylor, Executive Director of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children said: “We all began to realise that countries all over the world were really struggling to develop their national frameworks on Child Online Safety, they needed a roadmap, they needed a how to guide on how to translate the vision into reality. The Toolkit begins to meet this need and helps remove some of those barriers to action, offers best practice examples from all over the world, approaches across each policy area and actions that every stakeholder can take to build a safer internet.”