人权理事会结束关于信息和通讯技术以及儿童性剥削问题的年度会议（部分翻译）

下午

日内瓦（2016年3月7日）——今天下午，人权理事会结束了其关于儿童权利问题的年度全天会议，会上的小组讨论重点关注信息和通讯技术、多方利益攸关者方法和良好做法的作用。

负责暴力侵害儿童问题的秘书长特别代表玛尔塔•桑托斯•派斯（Marta Santos Pais）主持了讨论，她表示，保护儿童不受网络剥削并不能成为打压其网络学习权利的理由。儿童网络剥削问题是一个多层面的问题，需要多方面的应对措施。必须对处于危险之中的儿童建立强大的刑事司法系统和报告机制。需要为所有儿童建立安全、包容性的数字环境，国家和国际当局、私营部门、媒体、学校、家长和儿童都应该包括在这一进程之中。

联合国儿童基金会私营部门关系部副部长安德烈斯•佛朗哥（Andres Franco）表示，信息和通讯技术正成为儿童日常生活中必不可少的一部分。它们彻底改变了儿童获取信息、教育和社会网络，但是也将他们置于新的危险和伤害之中。令人不堪其扰的是，网络图片中出现的儿童越来越年少，那些图片通过点对点技术中以匿名的方式进行流传，而且没有任何财务转账记录。为了处理网络剥削问题，联合国儿童基金会已经与17个国家合作建立了一个创新的全球能力建设方案。

挪威日报《世界之路报》（Verdens Gang）的高级专栏作家Hakon Fostervold Hoydal描述了他与一名数据安全分析师开展的报道项目，旨在打击那些下载儿童虐待材料的男人。今天，犯罪者和虐待者认为他们在网络上可以隐身。但是，该项目显示，这些人能够被找到。如果电影和音乐行业能够成功地游说追踪非法下载电影和音乐者的权利，Hoydal先生提出，为什么不能为了保障儿童人权而给予同等的权利。

国际刑警组织（INTERPOL）弱势群体事务助理主任迈克尔•莫兰（Michael Moran）表示，仅有很小一部分的受害者的身份得到确认，他称，国际刑警组织及其成员国在数千万份档案中有许多材料的积压。为了获取全球南方发展中国家下一个十亿互联网用户的竞争只会恶化现状。因此，国际社会应该在教育和预防、稳健法律实施和受害者身份确认方面共同合作，希望在未来良好管理这个问题。

谷歌公司（Google Inc.）欧盟儿童安全先锋政策（European Union Policy Lead for Child Safety）的布列塔尼•史密斯（Brittany Smith）解释道，谷歌搜索已经进行改善，进一步避免儿童性虐待材料的链接显示在搜索结果中，谷歌算法也尽其所能地理解互联网的内容，并将最相关的结果反馈给用户。自2008年以来，谷歌已经采用了“散列法”技术可靠地、前摄地检测儿童性虐待图片，进而快速识别这些图片的副本，并防止重新出现在谷歌产品中。

秘鲁成长网络协会（Asociación Crecer en Red from Peru）的创始人和董事长加比•雷耶斯（Gaby Reyes）表示，信息和通讯技术已经改变了人们对隐私、休闲和表达的认知。通过技术发生的性暴力是家庭和学校的巨大隐忧。然而，创造恐惧的氛围并不是健康的方式，这也并未对讨论作出贡献，因为它传达了这样的讯息：信息和通讯技术未能发挥它们为儿童赋权的巨大潜力。必须在最大化科技提供的赋权以及最小化其带来的风险之间找到平衡。

在随后的讨论中，代表团们强调必须针对线上罪行适当采取线下应对措施。应该建立良好的国家法实施和儿童保护系统，处理线下和线上暴力侵害儿童问题，始终保持一个开放的互联网。一些国家表示，当代国际社会面临的最大挑战是意识形态原教旨主义者和恐怖主义者实施的互联网剥削，他们招募儿童实施犯罪行为。虽然数字化世界为儿童提供了学习、参与和沟通的机会，各国也有责任确保儿童的权利在这样的环境下得到有效保障。为了打击侵害儿童的网络罪行，一个充足的立法框架和培训执法官员至关重要，互联网提供者应该发挥作用，特别关注最年轻的互联网用户的安全。

发言者包括：欧盟、巴林、欧洲委员会、乌拉圭、以色列、刚果、马尔代夫、墨西哥、波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那、意大利、法国、斯洛文尼亚、委内瑞拉、阿根廷、玻利维亚、黑山、白俄罗斯、阿尔巴尼亚、葡萄牙、伊朗、英国、吉尔吉斯斯坦、苏丹、马里、泰国、巴基斯坦、摩纳哥和阿拉伯联合酋长国。伊斯兰合作组织也作了发言。

以下民间社会组织也作了发言：国际天主教儿童局（International Catholic Child Bureau）、非洲文化国际组织（Africa Culture Internationale）、阿拉伯人权委员会、欧洲法律和司法中心（European Centre for Law and Justice）法律与司法中心（Centre for Law and Justice）和欧洲公共关系联合会（European Union of Public Relations）。

理事会将于3月8日（周二）上午9点继续与外债问题专家和食物权问题特别报告员于今天中午开始的集体互动对话。随后，理事会将与负责暴力侵害儿童问题的秘书长特别代表和负责儿童与武装冲突问题的秘书长特别代表举行集体互动对话。

文件

理事会面前有人权事务高级专员办事处关于信息和通讯技术以及儿童性剥削的报告（A/HRC/31/34）。

Statements by the Moderator and the Panellists

MARTA SANTOS PAIS, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children, moderating the discussion, noted that today’s discussion provided a great opportunity to promote good practices and lessons learned, and to anticipate priorities for future collaboration. Although the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted many years ago, its principles were as relevant today as they were in 1989. Digital literacy was a fundamental part of human rights, which allowed children to grow with learning and confidence. The international community was dealing with a very complex agenda, which recognized how new technologies helped children learn, communicate and defend their rights. However, to many children new technologies also posed challenges. They were often used to commit crimes against children. Ms. Santos Pais stressed three dimensions of the issue. First, in order to protect children, it was not justifiable to supress their right to learn. Second, the issue of child online exploitation was a multidimensional problem and a multifaceted response to protect children in the online environment was needed. Third, it was important to have in place a strong criminal justice system and reporting mechanisms for children at risk. There was a need for a safe and inclusive digital environment for all children. National and international authorities, the private sector, media, schools, parents and children all had to be involved in the process.

ANDRES FRANCO, Deputy Director of the Private Sector Engagement at the United Nations Children’s Fund, noted that information and communications technologies were becoming an integral part of children’s everyday lives. Globally, one in three Internet users was a child. Children were spending more time online, and they started using the Internet and mobile phones at a younger age. That development was transforming children’s lives and it was revolutionising children’s access to information, education and social networks. New technologies exposed children to new risks and harm. It was tremendously disturbing that children featured in online images were younger and younger, and that those images were exchanged via peer-to-peer networks anonymously and without any trace of financial transaction. The United Nations Children’s Fund had established a ground-breaking global programme to build capacity to tackle online child sexual exploitation, and it had partners in 17 countries. It accelerated efforts by governments, civil society, industry and United Nations agencies so that children were protected from online exploitation, perpetrators were apprehended and prosecuted, and children could enjoy the Internet free from danger. The programme was prompting Governments to commit to protect children from online sexual exploitation in several countries, such as Kenya, Namibia, Uganda, Vietnam, Guatemala, Philippines and Albania. The United Nations Children’s Fund also worked with the information and communication technology sector to ensure that the services and platforms they provided reduced the risks that children were exposed to online and were guided by the Children’s Rights and Business Principles, and the Industry Guidelines on Child Online Protection developed by the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Telecommunications Union and partners. However, research and efforts to monitor and evaluate policies and programmes were still urgently needed. There was also insufficient capacity and coordination among key stakeholders at the national and global level to address online child sexual exploitation. There were still low levels of awareness among children, parents, caregivers and teachers about the risks that children faced when using information and communications technologies, particularly in low-income settings.

MARTA SANTOS PAIS, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children, agreeing with the last presenter, concurred that prevention could not be ignored. She then introduced Hakon Hoydal, a reporter with the Norwegian daily newspaper VG.

HAKON FOSTERVOLD HOYDAL, Senior Feature Writer at VG (Verdens Gang AS), described a reporting project he had undertaken with a data security analyst where the end result was to confront men who were downloading child abuse material. After a few weeks, the reporting team had in total 95,000 IP addresses worldwide which had downloaded child abuse material. The reporters then started working to identify the men behind those addresses, he said, underlining that they were all men. They found the names of 78 Norwegians. Ten of those were confronted using hidden cameras and microphones. All were truly shocked that they had been found. Their talk with the reporters was the first time any of them had had to explain their actions, and until they were confronted, no-one had stopped them and asked those “rather ordinary guys” what they were doing. Today, perpetrators and abusers thought they were invisible online. But the reporters’ project had shown that they could be identified. Mr. Hoydal said that there needed to be a presence of what he called “normal people” on the sites that he had mentioned, so as to refuse abusers the right to create a room where abusive behaviour became the norm. If the film and music industry could successfully lobby for the right to track people who were illegally downloading movies and music, he asked why that right could not also be given in order to secure children’s human rights. “We need to let them know they can be seen,” he said, adding that the wake-up call could be a warning letter in their mailbox letting them know that their IP address had done something it shouldn’t.

MARTA SANTOS PAIS, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children, noted the reporter’s comment that the media was not simply helping victims but also giving a wake-up call where offenders were approached and their anonymity was broken.

MICHAEL MORAN, Assistant Director, Vulnerable Communities, International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), said that there could be no child pornography without child sexual abuse, and that therefore he and his colleagues preferred the term “child sexual abuse material” to describe what they worked with every day in increasing numbers. The “explosion” in such material engendered by the information and communications revolution had been tempered somewhat over the last 15 years by law enforcement, the industry and non-governmental organizations working together. The working together part had functioned well on that matter, and should be the model in the future. Policy makers had responded well to the phenomenon, with laws now existing in a good number of countries. He spoke about his department’s work in identifying victims, noting that in most countries, it was primarily a law enforcement task. Child sexual abuse material could be sub-divided into the categories “identified,” “unidentified,” and “not distributed.” An INTERPOL database had developed into a powerful content based retrieval system and reference database for law enforcement all around the world. Only a small percentage of the number of victims out there had been identified, he said, noting that INTERPOL and its Member States had a backlog of material that ran into the tens of millions of files. The race to connect the next billion internet users in the global South would only exacerbate the current situation, and so only by working together in education and prevention, robust law enforcement and victim identification could the international community hope to manage the issue into the future.

BRITTANY SMITH, European Union Policy Lead for Child Safety at Google Inc., said that Google was working very hard to ensure that child sexual abuse imagery was not available through its services. Google had 16 teams across the company that worked to rid the web of child sexual abuse content. Google Search had been refined to further prevent links to child sexual abuse material from appearing in its results, and the Google algorithm did its best to make sense of the content of the Internet and return the most relevant results for people. Since 2008, Google had been using its “hashing” technology to reliably and proactively detect child sexual abuse imagery, allowing it to quickly identify copies of those images and prevent them from reappearing on its products. Google was now working to share this technology with others in the industry so that tagged images could also be eliminated from non-Google services. Google collaborated with law enforcement authorities investigating online crimes against children, and with child-protection non-governmental organizations to process and remove known child sexual abuse webpages from its search results. Google was also running programmes to teach children and parents about online safety and data protection. It encouraged children to report harmful content they might come across. Google had a real responsibility in that regard.

GABY REYES, Founder and Director of Asociación Crecer en Red of Peru, said that information and communications technologies had changed perceptions of privacy, leisure and expression. Sexual violence taking place through technology was a big concern in households and schools. Creating an atmosphere of fear was however not a healthy approach and did not contribute to the discussion, as it conveyed a picture of information and communications technologies that failed to portray their huge potential for empowering children. It was essential to strike a balance between maximizing opportunities for empowerment provided by technology and minimizing the risks that derived from them. Governments should take responsibility to carry out research to understand how children engaged with technology, and to adopt policies that took children’s perspectives and experience into account. Children had to be involved in prevention work and were encouraged to share their perceptions of online risks, and parents and teachers should actively accompany children in their interactions with technology from a very early age. The development of computer programming skills for children was a way to promote their knowledge and critical use of information and communications technologies, and would enable children to improve their management of the digital world as they become smarter users and more aware consumers.

Interactive Dialogue

European Union stated that offline responses had to be appropriate to online offences. National law enforcement and child protection systems needed to be well-equipped to work on offline and online forms of violence against children, consistent with maintaining an open Internet. Bahrain reaffirmed the importance of the discussion, noting that the greatest challenge facing the contemporary international community was the exploitation of the Internet by ideological fundamentalists and terrorists, who recruited children to commit criminal acts. Council of Europe noted that while the digital world offered children learning, participation and communication opportunities, it was the responsibility of States to ensure that their rights were upheld efficiently in that environment. It reminded that the Cybercrime Convention was a global treaty criminalising acts committed on or through computer systems. Uruguay stated that it was vital that States adapted their legislation and worked with the private sector to investigate and identify victims and perpetrators. Without holding Internet companies responsible, it would be impossible to tackle the problem of child online exploitation. Israel stated that it had taken steps to implement its commitment to protect children from online sexual exploitation through legislation, prosecution, institutional changes, education, staff training and public activity. Congo said it had been striving to minimize risks for children in the online environment through various legal acts; it had also established the Advisory Council for the Youth and awareness raising campaigns.

Maldives said that being among the countries with the highest level of Internet users in South Asia with nearly a quarter of the population surfing the Internet, and with children comprising one third of the population, the threats posed by child exploitation and cyberbullying were a serious concern for Maldives. Mexico expressed belief that crimes through the creation of children’s images were a global problem, asking panellists what the impact might be of the correct dissemination of guiding principles for businesses on the matter. Bosnia and Herzegovina detailed national measures undertaken to mitigate the abuse of children, including an action plan for child protection and prevention of violence against children through information and communications technologies. Italy asked the panellists how States, international organizations and the corporate sector could work together to address the challenges inherent in the transnational nature of the Internet when it came to detection, investigation, victim identification and enforcement? France said that social networks should not be misused to disseminate harmful images or messages, and gave examples of domestic initiatives such as a free helpline to respond to concerns of families. Slovenia gave statistics on Internet use among children and youth nationally, and also detailed initiatives adopted, such as the publication of a handbook to help guide teachers in addressing cyberbullying.

International Catholic Child Bureau said that an adequate legislative framework and the training of law enforcement officials were crucial to combat online crimes against children, and underlined the role of Internet providers, who should pay special attention to the safety of the youngest Internet users. Africa Culture Internationale said that States should adopt strict legislation that required authorities with responsibilities in child protection to consider any complaints coming from children, and urged the Human Rights Council to take children’s rights into consideration.

Replies by the Panellists

ANDRES FRANCO, Deputy Director of the Private Sector Engagement at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that UNICEF had developed guidelines for Internet companies to prevent violence and to promote citizenship on the Internet. UNICEF had also worked with States and supported them in adopting national action plans for the protection of children online. UNICEF was working directly with companies to investigate and address child-rights risks, and cooperating with them on innovative solutions, for example on birth registration. Child-rights impact assessment tools were being developed for mobile companies.

BRITTANY SMITH, European Union Policy Lead for Child Safety at Google Inc., underlined the importance of self-regulation, and assured of Google’s determination not only to respect the law, but to go beyond that. Google had developed privacy and parental controls, and had conducted awareness-raising activities.

MICHAEL MORAN, Assistant Director, Vulnerable Communities, International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), said that one of the fundamental points to be made was the principle of “children first”. INTERPOL strongly supported international cooperation, and encouraged cross-ministry specialist boards to be established. Hotlines and law enforcement should also work more closely. He then referred to the Council of Europe Guidelines for Cooperation between Law Enforcement and Internet Service Providers against Cybercrime.

GABY REYES, Founder and Director of Asociación Crecer en Red, Peru, said that when campaigns were carried out, there were a lot of myths that needed to be done away with, one of which was that kids were not aware of the risks. But she said she was constantly taken aback by how aware children were of the risks. The risks of technologies had to be reduced, and the international community also needed to look at the issue in a comprehensive fashion.

HAKON FOSTERVOLD HOYDAL, Senior feature writer at VG (Verdens Gang AS) said that
it was easy for many media to think stories such as the one he had reported would not be read. He had been told by an editor that misery did not sell. The downloaders were in one way heroes for daring to speak to reporters, he said, adding that that was one of the reasons the article he and his reporting partner had written had been one of most-read articles in Norway last year. They had had a hard time getting in touch with victims, he said, but when they met one victim and people read her interview, a lot of other victims came forward to tell their stories.

MARTA SANTOS PAIS, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children, noted that there were good practices out there, that prevention had to be improved, and that incidents should be combatted.

Interactive Debate

Venezuela expressed concern over the rapid expansion of online sexual exploitation of children, noting that in order to combat that phenomenon there was a need for national and international involvement and heavy penalisation of such crimes. Argentina said that new technologies helped to improve children’s knowledge and skills. However, they also posed many risks and to minimize them Argentina had promulgated a law on online crimes, and had reformed its Penal Code accordingly. Bolivia noted that new technologies on a daily basis were a fundamental part of children’s lives and brought about many positive educational and communication possibilities for them. Bolivia asked how it could reconcile greater levels of control and at the same time safeguard freedom of expression.

Montenegro said that protecting children from abuses and sexual exploitation through modern means of communication was of great importance for each society. To that end the Government had launched the initiative “Safe Internet” with the aim to educate children on the safe use of the Internet. Belarus said that, in addition to various legal acts, it had been active in the preventive work with parents and family clubs, awareness-raising campaigns, and individual consultations on the safe use of the Internet. Albania stated that multilateral and coordinated action between and within governments and law enforcement agencies, including non-State actors, such as industry, academia and civil society, was a timely measure to prevent harmful information that put at risk children and their lives.

Portugal said that information and communications technologies had brought enormous benefits to children’s lives, including the rights to education and freedom of expression, but also made them more vulnerable to situations of sexual exploitation. How could States better protect and redress children victims of sexual exploitation through information and communications technologies and avoid their stigmatization? Iran stated that information and communications technologies could play a catalytic role as an enabler to development, but leaving children in exposure to online harm could negatively impact their personal development and well-being. Adherence to the religious, ethical and moral principles should be seriously taken into account as an effective way of prevention. United Kingdom believed that technology was a powerful and transformative force for growth, but it was also enabling new forms of crimes against children that ought to be tackled with urgency. All United Kingdom police forces were now connected to the Child Abuse Image Database, but to tackle online sexual abuse, States had to work together and act globally, including through the WePROTECT initiative.

Kyrgyzstan stated that only by joining forces could online sexual exploitation and abuse of children be combatted. Social networks should be included in information campaigns warning children of dangers online. Each child had the right to have his or her honour and dignity protected. Sudan welcomed the work to protect children from violence, noting that it had passed legislation in that regard. Sudan had undertaken a special programme for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of children who used to be with rebel groups. Special focus was placed on the quality of education, under the supervision of several national institutions. Mali said that its Constitution had several articles on the protection and promotion of children’s rights. With more than half of its population being under 18, Mali was committed to the children’s cause, and was ready to prevent and combat the new threat against children through the usage of information and communications technologies.

Arab Commission for Human Rights expressed concerns about the children victims of the conflict in Yemen, where they were recruited by all parties and sent to war instead of school. It called for the adoption of rehabilitation programmes for these children. European Centre for Law and Justice said that there was an urgent need for better regulation of the Internet to protect children, and condemned the practice of “Bach bazi” which involved the exploitation of young boys for sexual entertainment and pleasure, particularly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. European Union of Public Relations noted that children were not simply passive recipients of information, but they were also engaged actors in the online world. There was an urgent need to establish programmes for information and communications technologies for the recovery, psychological rehabilitation and reintegration of victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Thailand said that it recently amended its Criminal Code to prescribe punishment of up to five years imprisonment for possession of child pornography, up to seven years for distribution and up to 10 years for production and trade. Organization of Islamic Cooperation said that all forms of child exploitation could be better addressed if good practices were largely shared and if families were better included in prevention efforts. Pakistan said that its Constitution, laws and policies safeguarded the rights of children, and that its Prevention of Electronic Crime Bill was being drafted and would state that whoever committed an offense against a minor would be imprisoned for up to 10 years. Monaco said that it attached high priority to the protection of children, as illustrated by its adoption of a law on strengthening the criminalization of offenses against children, and its ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the protection of children from exploitation and sexual abuse. United Arab Emirates said that the misuse of information and communications technologies had become a threat to the health of children. Developments on the Internet needed to be followed up closely, and such monitoring needed to be done in both developed and developing countries. The United Arab Emirates was working on raising awareness, including among families, and was also leading an international task force in the field.

Concluding Remarks

MARTA SANTOS PAIS, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children, thanked the participants for their questions. She asked how laws and normative frameworks could promote a coordinated response to online child exploitation and abuse at the international level.

MICHAEL MORAN, Assistant Director, Vulnerable Communities, International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), explained that a clear law was required that empowered police and judges to send clear messages to citizens and to promote zero tolerance for online child exploitation. It would also help raise public awareness and thus prevent further crimes. It was important to differentiate between child abuse material and pornography. Inappropriate contact with children continued to be a very difficult issue in a lot of areas, and it caused a lot of anxiety to parents, caretakers and teachers, as well as to children. Online grooming and inappropriate contact must be legislated for. A coordinated international response would look like the WePROTECT initiative launched in the United Kingdom by the United Nations Children’s Fund. A global task force for senior police force could also be established. There were many stakeholders involved in prevention, starting from child online exploitation, child rights, and freedom of expression advocacy groups. All of those stakeholders should work together.

MARTA SANTOS PAIS, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children, asked how the legislation needed to define child sensitive mechanisms in order to encourage children to voice their concerns and make complaints.

GABY REYES, Founder and Director of Asociación Crecer en Red from Peru, responded that one of the rights affected by technology was the right to protection against all forms of violence, as well as the right to freedom of expression. Those rights had to be looked at in a holistic fashion. New technologies had an empowering aspect. As children increased their digital awareness and knowledge, online violence could be reduced. In Latin America children who had digital skills were not afraid of making complaints in case of violations. Public prevention policies therefore needed to take into account that aspect of the issue. There was a temptation to have repressive Internet use policies. But preventive policies needed to be above repression.

BRITTANY SMITH, European Union Policy Lead for Child Safety at Google Inc., said that Google had addressed harmful content on You Tube through community guidelines and values, encouraging users to report videos with hatred, pornographic or violent content. In addition, Google had established a programme that empowered individuals, organizations, governments and non-governmental organizations to review material. The programme worked well through collaboration between a wide range of players.

HAKON FOSTERVOLD HOYDAL, Senior Feature Writer at Norwegian daily Verdens Gang, said that children should be empowered to regain control of their stories. The Internet was all around everyone, and it was the sea in which children were swimming. Children had to be taught to swim in it and not to drown.

MARTA SANTOS PAIS, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children, stressed again the importance of a national coordinated approach and of involving the children themselves. Empowering children was the first line of prevention and protection. Coordination was also necessary at the regional and international levels to address the trans-border nature of these crimes. She also stressed the importance of education and of involving families and schools in prevention efforts. Lastly, she encouraged States to collect data and statistics on the use of the Internet by children.

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For use of the information media; not an official record