Safe use of ICTs can help children and adolescents better exercise their rights

The safe use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) by children and adolescents in the region can help ensure the fulfillment of their rights, according to two documents released today by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

ICTs, and the Internet in particular, have a direct and indirect impact on the guarantees established in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), such as freedom of expression and the rights to information, freedom of association and identity, according to the report Children's Rights in the Digital Age. Latin America and the New Technologies (Spanish only), published jointly by both organizations.

In a context of growing ICT use in the region, where an estimated 60% of boys and girls get their first mobile telephone (with or without an Internet connection) by the age of 12, and where one in five uses the web more than two hours a day, the organizations propose a series of policies oriented towards taking advantage of these tools' potential for the development of children and adolescents, while minimizing associated risks, like cyberbullying.

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Copyright & Source: ECLAC