A/HRC/28/55 ensuring that children benefit from the potential offered by ICTs while enjoying safety and effective online protection. A. Children and the digital world: maximizing opportunities and minimizing risks 51. Across regions, more and more children use information and communication technologies, starting at an increasingly young age. Children navigate online for hours, often without adult guidance or supervision. Although that enhances children’s digital literacy, it may also expose them to online risks. 52. ICTs and access to the Internet open avenues for children’s empowerment, learning, communication, social interaction and entertainment. Increasingly research is showing the importance of digital technology as a learning tool, and its contribution to children’s linguistic, cognitive and social development. For the youngest children, the use of touchscreen devices in kindergarten is associated with vocabulary development and academic achievement. 53. ICTs also enable children, and indeed adults, to learn about human rights and ways of securing their protection. ICTs are increasingly the means children choose to seek advice from child helplines, approach a children’s ombuds, report incidents of violence, ask for help and assistance, or promote child rights advocacy through websites, blogs and social networks. 54. Alongside their unique potential, ICTs are associated with many risks that are sometimes difficult to detect and address, including for families and caregivers. Openness and accessibility are fundamental aspects of the Internet, but therein also lie some of the greatest threats to children’s safety and protection from violence. 55. Harmful material and information, including violent, sexually explicit or hateful content, are readily available and may spread quickly, potentially reaching millions in a fraction of a second and remaining in cyberspace for a lifetime. Violence, abuse and exploitation can easily take place in spaces that are not under adult supervision, and parents and caregivers may struggle to keep up with technological developments to monitor children’s online activity, especially in countries where digital literacy is low. 56. Today’s children tend to shift easily between “real” and “virtual” worlds and regard the online/offline distinction as increasingly less relevant. ICTs are contributing to the breakdown of traditional boundaries of privacy, creating situations in which children engage in “chats” in apparently private settings while in fact potentially exposing themselves to a wide and unknown audience. Sharing personal information, and not recognizing online dangers or warning signals, may lead to multiple risks for children. 57. The more children engage in online activities, the more they enhance their digital literacy, gain skills and resilience, and become self-confident and curious. Yet the more skills they possess, the more online opportunities they explore which puts them at greater danger of being confronted with associated risks. Gaining online skills and resilience can, however, also reduce the harm that children experience, and help them to cope better with potential online threats. 58. Most children do not report being bothered or upset going online, and most risks are encountered by a minority of children. However, when harm arises, the impact on the child can be devastating, leading to depression and generating fear, eating and sleeping disorders, aggression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and a sense of shame and guilt. That is exacerbated when multiple forms of abuse and exploitation take place simultaneously or are committed against the same victim over time. 10