A/HRC/52/61 Children Online Protection Lab at the 2022 Forum. 34 The Lab is a multi-stakeholder partnership which will identify, assess and develop concrete solutions to enable children to use digital tools safely and benefit from their full potential while guarding against abuse online. In June 2021, the World Economic Forum created a Global Coalition for Digital Safety to accelerate public-private cooperation in tackling harmful content online. The Child Online Protection initiative led by ITU develops key recommendations and guidance to support efforts to create a safe and empowering online environment for children and young people, particularly through the 2020 Guidelines on Child Online Protection for children, parents and educators, industry and policymakers. 65. Multi-stakeholder partnerships are bringing together Governments, the private sector, civil society, international organizations and other entities to address specific forms of online violence. The WeProtect Global Alliance works to develops policies and solutions for tackling the sexual exploitation and abuse of children online, including through the implementation of its Model National Response. 35 The Global Partnership for Action on Gender-based Online Harassment and Abuse works to advance policy, increase programming and expand the evidence base to improve prevention of and response to technology-facilitated gender-based violence across the life course. There are also important partnerships that are bringing together or focusing on particular stakeholder groups, including in the areas of law enforcement, tech companies, hotlines and financial institutions. 66. There is a sound normative foundation, extensive guidance and a wide mobilization of stakeholders addressing violence against children online, especially sexual violence against children. Yet, efforts to date have not yielded the results that are needed and are not keeping pace with the rapid changes in the digital world and in children’s access to it. An adequate response to the full range of risks that children face online requires leadership and an even deeper commitment from every component of the ecosystem. C. Prevention must be the priority 67. While the response to cases of online violence against children once they emerge must be strengthened, this must not detract from the need to minimize the risk to the greatest extent possible. 68. This means ensuring that criminal law appropriately addresses all forms of online violence and crimes against children. With regard to sexual exploitation and abuse of children, gaps in legal frameworks on the prohibition of child sexual abuse material, livestreaming, sextortion and grooming, including through use of social networking platforms and online games, must be filled.36 It is also necessary to prohibit the use of information and communications technology in the recruitment of children by terrorist or violent extremist groups and in the context of child trafficking. 37 States should also prohibit by law the profiling or targeting of children of any age for commercial purposes on the basis of a digital record of their actual or inferred characteristics. 69. Instances of peer violence must be dealt with in line with principles of children’s rights. There are forms of online peer violence, such as most cases of cyberbullying, that, although harmful, should not in principle be criminalized but rather addressed through different means. Where online crimes against children are carried out by other children, States must make every effort to create, and use, alternatives to a criminal justice response. Self-generated sexual material that children possess and/or share with their consent and solely for their own private use should not be criminalized.38 34 35 36 37 38 14 See https://parispeaceforum.org/en/press/fifth-edition-recap-and-10-new-scale-upprojects%EF%BD%9Cpress-release/. See https://www.weprotect.org/response/. UNICEF, Legislating for the Digital Age. See, for example, the Penal Code of Argentina, Law 11.179, article 131, and the Cybersecurity Act, 2020, of Ghana. Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 25 (2021). Ibid. GE.22-29128