Talk:Youth empowerment – WS 02 2015

Dear all,

Let's start our work as org.team for the Workshop 2 on Empowerment:

1. The team membership is open so everybody can invite any other person into the team

2. We have to look for volunteers for a moderator, a reporter and 3-4 panelists to be decided till 15 May - (as to their functions you can see in the presentation here: http://www.eurodig.org/fileadmin/user_upload/get_involved/EuroDIG_2015_session_planning_presentation_20150330.pdf

3. Till 10th of April we should agree on: - session teaser - key words

4. We can start also discussing the final title, session description and format. No presentations are allowed. Recommended format is open interactive discussion, could be in the format of World cafe, Open space, round table or any other suggested by the team. Panelists contributions should be kept short - up to 5 minutes, and should not be self-presenting (speaker placement) but rather brief, provocative statements aiming to provoke lively discussion and lead to conclusions, recommendations, benchmarks, etc.

5. We have to think and propose how to achieve representation balance - stakeholders, geographical, gender. Here is also important to organise youth participation. My organisation can involve 3-4 young people from Bulgaria.

6. For a space for org.team discussion and work I suggest creating a Facebook group. Please, advise, would everybody agree to this? Or any other suggestions?

Best regards, Georgi

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Dear Georgi,

Thank you for being our focal point and starting the organisation of the workshop! We are happy to help with the organisation and/or on the day of the workshop if and where we can.

I think most of the answers to the questions raised in your email will depend on how the topic of the workshop is framed.

Albeit grouped together under the heading ‘Empowerment’, the 3 (or 4) contributions mentioned in the agenda (10,19 and 22 + 6) seem to cover a range of different issues.

To my mind, we have two potentially different topics (albeit there are linkages and they can maybe both be grouped under the general heading of ‘creating a better/safer online environment’):

1) The inclusive, positive use of ICTs by children

2) The fight against criminal sexual abuse material depicting children

At the same time we have a range of actors (children and young people; parents/teachers; online industry; law enforcement; the third sector;…) that could be ‘empowered’ or have a responsibility in either or both of the topics mentioned above. I am not sure a 90 minutes workshop can cover both aspects + all stakeholders or whether the topic should be further specified.

Our contribution (19) focussed mainly on role of technological measures such as filtering and or other control tools (which can either create a safer online environment for children or used to combat online child sexual abuse material) and how they relate to empowerment and issues surrounding, for instance, freedom of expression/access to information.

I am happy to hear how other organisers feel the workshop could be best framed as I think the panellists, format and representation will greatly depend on what the actual topic of the workshop will be.

As regards your last practical point, happy to use a Facebook group, email or the Eurodig WIKI.

Kindest regards, Kristof

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Dear Georgi, Dear Kristof, Dear all,

Here are point-blank ideas for a more convergent and integrated approach. Perhaps the wider and all-encompassing angle could be Child Online Protection, as it is being more and more prioritised within the UN agenda and gradually reflected across Internet Governance fora.

The fight against CSAM is a key strand of COP initiatives. Empowering children and young people, parents, guardians and educators in understanding and handling online risks is essential in combating ICT-facilitated abuse and exploitation. So we could have something along the lines of Child Online Protection in Focus: Protecting and Empowering an Online Generation. A workshop with two interactive parts: Protect Yourself, Protect the Community...And here self-empowerment, empowerment of the digital citizen, reporting hotlines and mechanisms, industry initiatives, the power of tech for good, cooperation with law enforcement while balancing freedom, ethics and responsibility would be highlighted accordingly. We could identify relevant stakeholders who would make fresh and forward-looking recommendations.

THE INHOPE video 'Report online child sexual abuse, don't ignore it' could be a good and easy introduction to the second part and the subject matter, as it ties in well with better/safer Internet angle.

Best regards, Sarah Jane

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Hi all,

I would like to echo Hans’ concern about trying to cover a very broad topic in a 90 minutes workshop. There are many important aspects to this debate and, in an ideal world, they should all be granted the time to discuss them in-depth as well as the linkages between them. I personally think that we would struggle to combine creating a safer internet (in particular combating online child sexual abuse) with the positive use of internet by children.

Below, my suggestions for a workshop. I have based my suggestion mainly on the proposals 19 and 22 and the work of our hotline. I completely understand our organisational team - and overall topic - covers potentially a wider range of issues so happy to discuss other suggestions as well.

Nevertheless, given our limited time I believe it might be best to have a clearly framed discussion. As the heading for the session is empowerment, we might be able to either frame the discussion regarding online child safety/protection based on:

- The role and responsibility of a specific actor (for instance, the role of industry and filtering/parental controls in protecting children online and how this relates to freedom of expression/access to information and the empowerment of young adults (panellists: ISPs/mobile operators, parental control providers, freedom of expression advocates, academia,…)).

- A specific area of concern, for instance the role (and empowerment) of all relevant stakeholders to prevent the distribution of child sexual abuse material (panellists: Hotlines/INHOPE, industry, law enforcement, academia, international partners/third sector organisations,…). Such a topic, I believe, would be in line with the proposal by the Centre of Abuse and Trauma Studies for this workshop and the work of the involved hotlines/INHOPE.

I understand the intention to include the empowerment of young people (also in reference to Sarah Jane’s suggestion ‘Protect yourself, Protect the community’). However, looking at the data in our hotline the child abuse we encounter is most frequently (80%) of children aged 10 or younger and often depicts the severest level of abuse (rape and sexual torture). The children in these images are clearly victims of the abuse and there are limits to a discussion about their ‘empowerment’. When perhaps talking about older children/young people sharing sexual content among each other, there is merit in a discussion about empowerment or awareness raising but I think this might be a different discussion than the one about the abuse we see in our hotline (or at least that distinction should be made very clear).

Depending on how we decide to frame the topic, our teaser/keywords/panellists/etc will be different, but to give it a first go based on the second option mentioned above and some of the wording of the CATS proposal (22):

- One sentence session teaser:

The importance of a multidisciplinary approach to combat online child sexual abuse material: How to build the necessary partnerships in a global, multi-stakeholder environment?

- Summary:

Child sexual abuse material constitutes one of the most horrific types of online content available. Combating this material requires the involvement of a range different stakeholders, including hotlines/reporting mechanisms, law enforcement, the online industry and third sector organisations. Each stakeholder plays an important part in combating online child sexual abuse material and building effective operational partnerships across sectors and across borders is of the utmost importance to effectively combat this horrendous material.

This session will look at the role, responsibilities and limitations each of the actors face from an operational, legal or geographical point of view. It will aim to identify best practices in cross-sector and cross-border cooperation and highlight areas where further improvement can be made so that all actors can be empowered to play their role to the best of their capabilities.

- Keywords of the session:

Online child sexual abuse, cross-border cooperation, multi-stakeholder empowerment/partnerships

- Format:

An interactive panel discussion with representatives from different sectors highlighting their role, responsibilities and limitations when combating online child sexual abuse. After a scene-setting introduction, each panellists will be given a couple of minutes to answer the following questions:

- What is your role in combating online child sexual abuse material?

- How do you work with other partners in the same sector, both nationally and internationally?

- How do you work with different stakeholders from different sectors, both nationally and internationally?

- How do you think the fight against online child sexual abuse material can be improved, in particular looking at the cooperation between different stakeholders?

Afterwards, the floor will be opened to an interactive discussion with participants.

- Panellist:

- Academia: Centre of Abuse and Trauma Studies (CATS) (perhaps to do the introduction?), …

- Law Enforcement: Europol or Interpol representative,…

- Industry: ISP, Search engine, Social Media,…

- Hotlines: INHOPE (international cooperation), IWF/Bulgarian Hotline (operational perspective),…

- Third Sector Organisations: To be decided?

This is my first attempt at a list of possible panellists and there are many more possible stakeholders that can be involved, including the ones involved in the organisation of this workshop.

Finally, I just wanted to stress again that this is just one approach so please feel free to completely change it or to suggest alternative approaches. I tried to update the WIKI, but I don’t think I have administrator rights.

Best, Kristof

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Hi Georgi,

What is your take on the below? I had tried to bridge the gap and connect the topics last time (as you might remember from my email), as otherwise I feel we might lose this workshop opportunity altogether. And more and more Internet Governance platforms and fora want to link up empowerment and protection. So we need a fresh approach as you suggested and consequently adapt. And as I observed at the Global Conference on Cyberspace (GCCS) in The Hague last week, they do not want the fight against CSAM to be that ‘centre-staged’ anymore. So we need to be realistic and pragmatic about the whole thing.

As you are much more involved in the preparation for the EuroDIG, what is your feeling about it? Do you feel the organisers could still say OK for two different workshops? Also, would you like us to subtitle the INHOPE video in Bulgarian ahead of the event? I have attached the English script for all uses and purposes.

Best, Sarah Jane

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Dear friends,

What Kristof and Sarah say about fight against child sexual abuse online is of course very important part of empowerment but I think it is just one piece of it - protection in the broad sense. But being or feeling protected is not the main part of empowerment - it rather disempowers (if there is such a word:-) because somebody else is watching and reacting to risks and dangers and you don't feel your own responsibility to watch after your own responsible behaviour online.

When reflecting about that it seems to me that if we start by defining the keywords it would help us to imagine how we could organise the session.

I can propose three keywords - protect (this was already made clear enough by Kristof and Sarah), educate (all kind of initiatives and programmes aiming to raise awareness, train, inform about risks and ways to prevent them) and support (here I can differentiate two parts: consult and support victims, and engage all adequate actors in developing positive online content and applications for children and young people).

In such a way we could divide the session into three groups using the world cafe method: each group has a table with a host and flip-chart paper; each table takes one of the 3 keywords and participants discuss on different ways, ideas, proposals; after some intervals of time the groups change tables twice but hosts remain; in this way every participant could contribute to all three main spheres of empowerment; at the end hosts present a resume of what has been suggested and written down on the three tables.

Does it make sense to all of you?

Kind regards, Georgi

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Dear all

I am writing on behalf of Yelp, the online reviews site and app, to share some thoughts about the workshop on empowerment. I have read the message thread and it seems that the workshop will focus a lot of safety of children. I would like to bring in an additional perspective; the perspective of consumer empowerment online through information filters.

Both search engines and consumer reviews are widely used by consumers to get access to information. When looking for a doctor in a city or a hotel for their holidays, consumers rely on search engines and reviews by fellow consumers to make an informed choice. Search engines and consumer reviews have become tools for consumer empowerment. A number of issues need to be addressed, including the non discriminatory treatment of sources of information by search engines, the treatment of fake reviews, the collaboration with public authorities.

If of interest, I would be happy to further discuss this idea and get involved in the preparation of the workshop.

Kind regards Kostas Rossoglou Head of EU Public Policy Yelp, Inc.