Background
Young people (children and teenagers) are enthusiastic users of mobile technology. Their knowledge of mobile apps and platforms often surpasses that of their parents, guardians and teachers.
For growing numbers of young people, mobile technology is an increasingly important tool for communicating, accessing information, enjoying entertainment, learning, playing and being creative. As mobile technology becomes more embedded in everyday life, mobile operators have an important role to play in protecting and promoting children’s rights.
For young people, mobile devices can be key to accessing:
- Employment skills.
- Enhanced formal and informal education and learning.
- Information and services to aid in health and well-being.
- Improved social and civic engagement.
- Opportunities to play and be creative.
Increasingly, mobile devices are playing a role in formal education and informal learning. For people in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) and rural areas, as well as areas where certain groups – girls in particular – are excluded from formal education, mobile connectivity offers new opportunities to learn.
Like any tool, a mobile device can be used in ways that cause harm, so young people require guidance to benefit from mobile technologies safely and securely.
The mobile industry has taken steps to support the safe and responsible use of mobile services by young people. The GSMA plays a leading role in voluntary industry initiatives, including multistakeholder task forces.
Debate
What potential harms are children exposed to in the digital environment?
How can all stakeholders navigate the tensions between different child rights in the digital world?
Industry position
Mobile devices and services can enhance the lives of young people. This perspective needs to be embraced, encouraged and better understood by all stakeholders to ensure young people reap the full benefits of mobile technology.
Encouraging and enabling the safe, positive and responsible use of mobile by children and young people is best approached through multistakeholder efforts that include young people themselves.
Working closely with its partner UNICEF, its mobile operator members and a range of other stakeholders, including young people, the GSMA works to support children’s rights to, through and in the digital environment. The GSMA also works closely with Child Helpline International to foster collaboration between mobile operators and child helplines in promoting children’s rights – in particular, their right to be heard – and to work together on areas of mutual concern, such as a safer internet.
The GSMA takes part in international initiatives related to safeguarding children online, including the ITU Child Online Protection programme, and actively engages with governments and regulators seeking to address this issue. Through its Capacity Building programme, for example, the GSMA helps policymakers better understand children’s use of technology and discusses strategies for encouraging young people to become positive, engaged, responsible and resilient users of digital technology.
Young people are critical to the evolution of the mobile sector because they represent the first generation to have grown up in a connected, always-on world. They are also future consumers and innovators who will deliver the next wave of innovation in mobile.
Resources
Guidelines for Industry on Online Child Protection, UNICEF, 2020
for Companies in the ICT Sector, UNICEF
Enhancing Children’s Lives Through Mobile, GSMA, 2019
Internet Safety Guides, GSMA and Child Helpline International, 2017
Research Results, Global Kids Online