ITU publishes update on its Child Online Protection Initiative and Global Programme for January–September 2025

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has published an update on the status of its Child Online Protection (COP) Initiative and the COP Global Programme, covering activities implemented from January to September 2025. The report, submitted to the Council Working Group on Child Online Protection for its September session, provides a detailed overview of global outreach, national support and emerging multistakeholder initiatives.

The update highlights significant progress in expanding multilingual access to online safety materials. The COP training resources were released in all six official UN languages, while Morocco began a nationwide awareness campaign using newly localised content. In Armenia, COP guidelines for parents, educators, industry and policymakers were translated into Armenian, and the national onlinesafety.am platform was migrated to local servers to improve accessibility and long-term sustainability.

Capacity-building activities intensified across several regions. Policymakers and educators in Brunei, Micronesia and Nepal participated in dedicated COP training, while Bahamas and Morocco hosted training-of-trainers sessions. Armenia, Morocco and Switzerland held multi-day workshops for children, young people and educators. As part of the 15th CyberDrill for the Americas Region, Costa Rica hosted a COP session on grooming, demonstrating growing integration of child protection considerations into wider cybersecurity exercises. Armenia also convened a youth-led high-level roundtable on Safer Internet Day, producing a declaration with recommendations on digital risks and responsibilities.

The ITU reports that thirteen countries received national COP assessments or frameworks during this period, including Albania, Armenia, Bahamas, Bhutan, Cambodia, Chile, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Malawi, Mongolia, Pakistan, Suriname and Thailand. Ongoing technical support continued in Andorra, Eswatini and Lebanon, while Armenia expanded implementation of its national framework with support from operators and other stakeholders. The draft Global Principles of Protection (PoP) are nearing completion and are scheduled for release in November 2025. ITU report

Cross-sector collaboration is a core component of the programme’s recent work. The ITU, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and UNICEF jointly led the drafting of a statement on artificial intelligence and children’s rights with contributions from over 40 organisations. The process involved consultations at the Conference on Child Rights and the Digital Environment in Tbilisi, where young people from more than fifteen countries took part. Adoption of the statement is expected later in 2025, with a formal launch scheduled for early 2026.

The newly established Industry Connect series has opened structured dialogue between governments and tech companies. Sessions held in 2025 addressed risks associated with AI and emerging technologies, followed by a session on social media and child safety featuring platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and k-ID. A third session at the Andorra Digital Forum will focus on gaming and online safety. Discussions across the series have highlighted shared responsibilities, safety-by-design approaches and the need for stronger transparency.

The COP Initiative was also active at major international forums. During the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, ITU and UNICEF participated in an intergenerational dialogue on strengthening governance to protect children in an AI-driven environment. At the WSIS+20 High-Level Event, ITU co-organised a session on global strategies to address child online harms and tech-facilitated gender-based violence, emphasising cross-sector cooperation, the application of COP guidelines and survivor-led initiatives such as StopNCII.org. ITU report

Finally, the report provides an update on GO-SAFER, a two-year initiative led by ITU’s Development Sector with the World Health Organization and the University of New Hampshire. The programme aims to build a global hub for evidence-based online safety education and strengthen international capacity to address child sexual exploitation and abuse online. Stakeholders are currently invited to contribute resources and nominate experts for its governance and research structures.