ITU’s child online protection group reviews global progress and sets new priorities ahead of WTDC-25

The International Telecommunication Union’s Council Working Group on Child Online Protection (CWG-COP) held its twenty-third meeting on 16 September 2025, bringing together governments, sector members, civil society, academia and international organisations to review progress and set priorities for global child online safety. The session, chaired by Vice-Chair Stella C. Erebor of Nigeria, took place in the lead-up to the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) in Baku and focused on programme updates, national initiatives and ongoing work within ITU’s standardisation and development sectors.

The ITU Secretariat reported expanded outreach of the global Child Online Protection initiative, including new multilingual online training, capacity-building workshops across regions, and support for national child safety frameworks in sixteen countries. Cooperation with UNICEF, WHO and other partners continues through joint statements, educational initiatives and the launch of GO-SAFER, a global hub for evidence-based online safety resources. Member States also presented national developments. Chad outlined country-wide awareness campaigns led by the National Agency for Computer Security and Digital Certification, while Malaysia detailed its National Online Safety Framework, combining legislation, awareness programmes and cross-sector partnerships. Andorra reported progress in establishing a national Centre for Digital Well-being and Digital Skills to consolidate training and regulatory work.

Several stakeholders presented thematic contributions. Kaspersky highlighted global digital literacy tools for children and parents. SWGfL introduced Family Smart Start, a pilot programme supporting parents whose children receive their first smartphones. Roblox detailed more than one hundred recent safety updates and new parental tools under its Safety 2025 initiative. WHO and the University of New Hampshire presented GO-SAFER, a shared platform for high-quality online safety education materials. ITU-T Study Group 17 provided an update on standardisation work, including a gap analysis that identifies age assurance and automated content moderation as priority areas requiring global standards.

Member States discussed proposals to expand CWG-COP’s scope to include youth, as submitted by the Russian Federation. Several delegations expressed interest while noting legal and institutional distinctions between child-specific protection frameworks and youth digital-policy issues. The Secretariat highlighted that ongoing COP programming already includes youth-focused activities, but formal mandate changes would need to be addressed at future WTDC or Plenipotentiary Conferences. Delegations also raised the need to consider online risks affecting older persons and the importance of balanced, culturally sensitive approaches to parental control tools.

The meeting concluded with several agreed actions. CWG-COP will support continued collaboration with ITU-T Study Group 17, particularly in areas related to age assurance and automated moderation. The Group welcomed SWGfL’s work on the Parental Control Enforcement Protocol (PARCEP), an effort to create interoperable parental controls without undermining encryption, and recommended further technical exploration within SG17 and relevant internet standards bodies. Delegations also supported increasing the involvement of ITU regional offices and exploring modalities to include children and youth directly in future sessions.

The outcomes will inform upcoming development-sector discussions and provide input to broader UN and multistakeholder processes on child online protection.