The Ministry of Information Technology and Communications launches discussions on children’s Internet protection

The Ministry of Information Technology and Communications (MITC) organized a round table on the topic “Children’s Internet Protection”. The event was attended by the representatives of the MITC, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, General Prosecutor Office, State Enterprise “MoldData”, Center for Human Rights, UNICEF Moldova, UNDP Moldova and companies that provide Internet services.

Mihaela Iacob, Deputy Minister of Information Technology and Communications stressed the importance of a complex approach to the issue of children’s protection in cyberspace, since besides benefits Internet also represents a source of increased risk. “Letting children use Internet unattended often leads to creation of a favorable environment for psychological traumas and committing various crimes by involving children and teenagers, such as infantile pornography, sexual violence and other crimes”, mentioned Mrs. Iacob by challenging the participants to the meeting to come with suggestions in order to combat this phenomenon.

“It is compulsory to regulate this field for the sake of protecting children’s physical, mental and moral integrity, because they are the most frequent users of Internet, but also the most vulnerable category of citizens. No one contests the impact of Internet in our lives. According to international experts a 10% growth of Broadband Internet deployment leads to a 1,3% growth of GDP, yet we shall not forget about the existing danger and know what to do about that. One in seven children between the age of 10 and 17 has been sexually solicited online; 34% of children, users of Internet, are involuntarily exposed to various sexually-related materials and the word “sex” heads the list of the most solicited topics in Internet”, mentioned Stanislav Gordea, Head of the Division of Analytical Researches of the MITC.

“No analysis is available regarding the situation of the children from Moldova, who access the Internet or the impact that world web may have on children of different age and social categories”, underlined Ana Revenco, representative of non governmental organization “La Strada”, specifying that they are ready to participate in the amelioration of the created situation.

Eugen Martin, representative of “MoldData” enterprise highlighted that the issue of filtering Internet information is not only a technical problem, but also refers to the education passed by parents and teachers to the children.

Veronica Cretu, president of “CBM” Training Center supported the idea regarding the necessity to improve the educational system by supplementing school curricula with a subject focused on Internet proficiency, personal data protection, the risks and opportunities of social networks, reliability of online sources, etc. According to her, programs on Internet information sharing shall be drawn up both for parents and teachers. Mrs. Cretu stressed the necessity to revise the activity of “Internet – cafe” facilities, where children navigate the Internet without supervision.

Pavel Sincariuc, Head of the Directorate of Policies in the Field of Information Technologies of the MITC mentioned that besides supplementing the legal framework, activity that might require more time, it is necessary to carry out imediate steps. Therefore, he opted for launching a mass-media awareness campaign regarding the threats to which children are exposed whenever using Internet, mentioning about the availability of the MITC to create an official webpage, which shall comprise all the related information.

The participants to the round table have unanimously supported the necessity to address this issue by joining the efforts of the entire society: children, parents, educational institutions, public authorities, law enforcement agencies and non governmental organizations. Following the consultations with the participants to the round table, it has been agreed to elaborate an action plan that shall include all the measures in order to protect children in cyberspace. The next meeting of the round table members has been scheduled for the end of June.

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