Adolescence

a window for possible economic development of at leasttwo decades opens, and many developing countries arejust about to enter this phase. Some studies indicate thatmuch of the success of East Asian economies in recentyears derived from reaping this demographic dividend,which depends nevertheless on investment in human capitalat the right time. 11Information and communications technology canaccelerate skills and knowledge acquisitionICT offers the potential to remove barriers to educationand literacy and to hand adolescents a key to unlock manyof the benefits of the modern knowledge economy and notbe left adrift by globalization. The panels on youth andtechnology presented throughout this report highlight thatadolescents and young people are particularly receptiveto new technology and adapt to its demands with alacritywhen they are given the chance.The poor in many developing countries, however, remainlargely excluded from ICT and its benefits. A vast digitaldivide continues to exist not only between the industrializedand the developing world – particularly the least developednations – but also between rich and poor within countries.Access to ICT is also much more problematic for disabledadolescents and those from marginalized communities orbe more pressing. Coming to terms with a uniformconcept of safety and arriving at ways to discuss andtrack the varying risks and behaviours are essential.Refining these risks to children’s rights to protectionfrom violence, abuse and exploitation from onlinesources is essential.A range of factors – including the setting and meansof access, usage patterns, attitudes and skill levels– is important in mapping risks and designingresponses. Also important are factors such as age,gender and socio-economic status, as well as peerbehaviour and mediation by caregivers. Whether achild accesses the Internet from home, school or acybercafe, for instance, has significant implicationsfor supervision, just as the speed of access andtype of device (i.e., mobile versus computer) affectusage and risks. Information fluency and relateddigital skills to evaluate online materials and performresearch are also the basis for identifying predators,avoiding risky situations and safely sharing personalinformation. These factors do not exist in isolation butinteract with the broader technological, economic,institutional, educational and cultural context.Current approaches to increasing digital safety forchildren and young people typically consist of somecombination of new or improved national legislationagainst child pornography and stronger law enforcement;filtering technologies at the individual accesspoint as well as the network level to screen out childsexual abuse images or other forms of pornographyin particular; and awareness-raising and educationalcampaigns targeted at parents, teachers and children.Within these broad categories, differencesexist with regard to the actual design and use of theinstruments, including the procedural safeguards thatshould accompany them.The transfer of ’solutions‘ from one context toanother calls for a careful analysis of the institutionalframework and of the interplay among thefactors outlined above, including a comprehensivestakeholder analysis. Addressing knowledge deficitsrequires more research and capacity-building, bothin developing and developed nations, including fieldexperiments and meaningful engagement with youngpeople. Programmes that genuinely try to improvethe safety of children and young people in a digitalcontext must be separated from the merely rhetorical,lest policymakers use the cover of protectingchildren to accomplish other goals such as broadlylimiting access to information.Colin Maclay, Urs Gasser and John Palfrey work atthe Berkman Center for Internet & Society, HarvardUniversity, while Gerrit Beger heads the Division ofCommunications Youth Section at UNICEF. The BerkmanCenter, which was founded to explore cyberspace andhelp pioneer its development, represents a network offaculty, students, fellows, entrepreneurs, lawyers andvirtual architects working to identify and engage withthe challenges and opportunities it offers.“ Effective problemsolving beginswith the definitionand explorationof the problemin question.”GLobal challenges for adolescents 51