Beyond Access: Youth Online Safety and Digital…

The digital transformation is a key driver of global change in the 21st century, significantly enhancing efficiency and productivity across various sectors, including the economy, education, and public services. It has become essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, despite the positive effects of digital transformation, there remain significant gaps in both access to and safe use of digital technologies.

Objectives

1. Identifying Solutions to Bridge the Online Safety Divide

The digital divide goes beyond technology access issues and directly impacts youth safety, well-being, and rights. This side event will explore concrete and practical solutions to bridge this safety divide. It will analyze the types and severity of digital divides experienced by youth based on their regional and social backgrounds and discuss policy, technological, and educational alternatives to address these issues.

For example, setting safety standards for digital environments for youth, developing cyberbullying prevention programs, and exploring international support measures to enhance accessibility.

2. Sharing Youth Online Safety Strategies and Success Stories

This event will showcase successful case studies of policies and programs implemented by various countries, institutions, and organizations to ensure youth online safety. Specifically, it will discuss strategies and approaches to addressing online safety issues in creative and effective ways in different national and regional contexts.

For instance, sharing best practices through cyberbullying prevention education, digital capacity-building programs, and youth-friendly technology development. Concrete implementation methods will be suggested so participants can apply them within their contexts.

3. Discussing Approaches to Promote Global Best Practices

The event will focus on building actionable multilateral cooperation models to promote successful practices beyond specific regions or countries. This will involve collaboration among international organizations, governments, the private sector, academia, and civil society to form networks, allocate resources effectively, and spread policies and programs.

Additionally, policymakers and institutions from various countries will collaborate to set global standards, creating a systematic approach to ensuring youth can safely engage with the digital world.