E/CN.15/2014/CRP.1 Chapter One: Introduction This study was prepared pursuant to Economic and Social Council resolution 2011/33 on Prevention, protection and international cooperation against the use of new information technologies to abuse and/or exploit children, in which the Council expressed concern that increasingly rapid technological advances have created new possibilities for the criminal misuse of new information and communication technologies. In the same resolution, the Council requested the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to carry out a study facilitating the identification, description and evaluation of the effects of new information technologies on the abuse and exploitation of children, while taking into account relevant studies carried out by regional organizations and other organizations within the United Nations system, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Telecommunication Union and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, with a view to promoting the exchange of experience and good practices. Several factors have given rise to growing concerns over the effects of new information and communications technologies (ICTs) on the abuse and exploitation of children. In recent decades, technological innovation has profoundly transformed societies around the world. By the end of 2013, almost 40 per cent of the world’s population, i.e. 2.7 billion people, and 78 per cent of households in developed countries had access to the Internet.1Although only 28 per cent of households currently have access to the Internet in developing countries, between 2009 and 2013 there were annual internet access growth rates of 27 per cent in Africa and 15 per cent in Asia and the Pacific, the Arab States and the Commonwealth of Independent States.2 In developed countries, the rate of mobile-cellular penetration reached 128 per cent in 2013, indicating that some users have multiple sources of mobile-cellular access.3 In the developing world, mobile cellular penetration rates reached 89 per cent at the end of 2013, marking a 20 per cent increase from 2010.4 Along with the rising use of mobile phones, texting by Short Message System (SMS) has emerged as a common means of communication. Between 2007 and 2010, the number of SMS sent globally tripled from 1.8 trillion to 6.1 trillion a year, equalling an average of 200,000 text messages sent every second.5 High-speed Internet has also spread significantly in recent years, greatly enhancing users’ ability to exchange image- and video-files. By the end of 2010, 24 per cent of the developed world had adopted fixed broadband Internet access.6 Although in the developing world only six per cent of households have adopted fixed broadband, many developing countries are increasingly embracing mobile broadband technology with the advent of smartphones, tablets and other wireless devices.7 The result of these trends is a global population, and in particular a global youth, with ever ready access to ICTs. In general, global data indicates that children’s Internet usage is increasing, both with regard to the number of children going online and time spent on the Internet.8 In recent decades children have tended to adopt ICTs from an early age, such that ICT becomes thoroughly embedded in their lives.9 For instance, 25 per cent of children in the United States under the age of six are online regularly, and nearly 60 per cent of children between the ages of six and nine years use the Internet every day.10 Similarly, in 2011, the Internet usage rate of children aged 3 to 5 in South Korea was at 66 per cent11. In Europe, 9 to 16-year-olds use the Internet for between one and five hours per day, while in Bahrain, the average daily time of Internet use ranges between two and a half and three and a half hours per day. Nonetheless, disparities in internet access __________________ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), 2013. Threat Assessment of Child Exploitation and Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. Paragraph 17. International Telecommunications Union (ITU), 2014. The World in 2013: Facts and Figures. Ibid. ITU, 2011. The World in 2010: Facts and Figures. Ibid. Ibid. ITU, 2014. UNICEF, 2011. Child Safety Online. Global challenges and strategies. Pp. 3-4. ITU, 2008. Use of Information and Communication Technology by the World’s Children and Youth; see also UNICEF, 2011. P. v; Michelet, I., 2003. Our Children at Risk Online. The Example of Thailand. A Survey Report. P. 12. Available at: http://www.ecpat.net/sites/default/files/Our_Children_At_Risk_Online_ENG.pdf. Gutnick A., et al., 2011. Always Connected: The New Digital Media Habits of Young Children. Pp. 14-18. Available at http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/jgcc_alwaysconnected.pdf. http://www.statista.com/statistics/226730/internet-usage-of-young-children-in-south-korea-since-2006/. V.14-03040 1