A/HRC/28/55 Consolidating partnerships with the corporate sector 101. The corporate sector can actively contribute to preventing violence, minimizing risks and securing children’s online protection. That is particularly important given that their services or products can be used to expose children to online abuse, including violent content, grooming and sexual abuse, cyberbullying and sexting. 102. Internet service providers (ISPs), social media companies and manufacturers and distributors of ICTs can all play a crucial role in safeguarding children’s online safety and ending impunity. As an important content provider, the corporate sector also has a responsibility to provide good quality and age-appropriate online content for children. 103. A number of recent international developments highlight the significance of the corporate sector in that area. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has adopted valuable general comments on the topic, explicitly recognizing the importance of cooperation with the mass media and the ICT industry to devise, promote and enforce global standards for child caregiving and protection;30 and stressing States parties’ obligations regarding the impact of the business sector on children’s rights, and companies’ liability when criminal acts of violence against children are committed though the Internet.31 104. At the regional level, the Council of Europe Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse encourages the participation of the private sector in the development and implementation of States’ policies to prevent online abuse, and foresees corporate liability measures for offences established under the Convention. 105. The Children’s Rights and Business Principles, jointly developed by UNICEF, the UN Global Compact and Save the Children, is the first comprehensive set of principles to guide companies’ actions in the workplace, the marketplace and the community to respect and support children’s rights.32 The ITU Guidelines for Industry on Child Online Protection, developed with UNICEF, identify ways for industry to integrate child rights into policy and management; processes for handling child sexual abuse material, establishing safe and age-appropriate online environments; and ways of promoting the positive use of ICTs and online safety education for children, parents and teachers.33 106. Strategic platforms such as the Global Child Forum periodically gather leading corporations to promote children’s rights and enhance online safety for children. The potential of the corporate sector to contribute to child protection is equally illustrated by the establishment in 2008 of the Mobile Alliance against Child Sexual Abuse Content, which works to prevent the use of the mobile environment to consume or profit from child sexual abuse content.34 107. Those are promising developments, but in such a fast-changing universe, it remains essential to pursue the effective implementation, periodic evaluation and further improvement of the frameworks already developed to prevent risks and enable children to enjoy the full potential of ICTs with confidence and safety. In addition, more consistent protection tools are needed to address child sexual abuse material and content that is harmful to children, to provide guidance on child safety addressed to children and parents, and to promote means to report abuse. 30 31 32 33 34 See CRC/C/GC/13, para. 43 (a) (viii). See CRC/C/GC/16, para. 60. See www.unicef.org/csr/12.htm. See www.itu.int/en/cop/Documents/bD_Broch_INDUSTRY_0909.pdf. See www.gsma.com/publicpolicy/myouth/mobiles-contribution-to-child-protection/mobile-alliance. 17