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	The Impact of Humanitarian Crises on Children in 2023 by Alliance for Child Protection-Humanitarian Actiion   As we reflect on 2023 and embark on a new year, the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action is deeply concerned about the devastating consequences of increasing armed conflict, climate-induced emergencies, and disasters associated with natural hazards on children around the world.   The sharp escalation in the scale and intensity of armed conflicts and the increasing violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL) throughout 2023 has had devastating consequences for children’s rights, including their right to protection. One in five children globally live in or are fleeing from conflict zones.   Forced displacement reached unprecedented levels in 2023 and children constitute 41% of all forcibly displaced people despite being only 30% of the world's population. Due to the protracted nature of conflict, the majority of these children will spend their entire childhoods in displacement.   Children are being maimed and killed, recruited and used by armed forces and groups, abducted, and subjected to sexual violence.   Meanwhile essential services and infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, are being attacked or used by armed groups and armed forces for military purposes, and life-saving humanitarian assistance is being deliberately denied.   The physical, emotional, and mental health impacts these violations have on children are devastating in the short term and will have detrimental impacts on their healthy development in the long term if not addressed.   The UN Secretary General’s 2023 report on Children and Armed Conflict included the highest ever numbers of verified grave violations against children throughout 2022.   Situations with the highest numbers of children affected were the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Israel and the State of Palestine, Somalia, Ukraine, and Syria.   Attacks against schools and hospitals increased by 112% and the recruitment and use of children by armed forces and armed groups rose by 21% compared to the previous year.   With the outbreak or escalation of conflicts during 2023—particularly in Sudan and the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem—the number of violations against children throughout 2023 will almost certainly be higher.   Ending and preventing grave violations against children and ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable has never been more urgent.   Children have the right to a safe and healthy environment, yet the climate crisis continues unabated. During 2023, climate-induced disasters continued to increase in scale, frequency, and intensity, often against a backdrop of conflict and instability.   From catastrophic flooding in Libya, to climate, conflict, and poverty induced migration and displacement along extremely dangerous routes such as the United States-Mexico border, children pay the heaviest price, yet are the least responsible for climate change.   Devastating earthquakes in Syria, Afghanistan, Turkiye, and Morocco have exacted an enormous toll on children and their families. Social protection mechanisms, many of which are already reeling from the global pandemic and other crises, are only getting further away from meeting the increasing needs of the most vulnerable children and their families.   Economic vulnerability stemming from lack of livelihoods opportunities continues to be a major driver of child protection risks, such as trafficking, child labour, neglect, psychosocial distress, physical and emotional maltreatment, child marriage, family separation, and recruitment and use by armed forces and armed groups.   Funding shortfalls in 2023 saw significant cuts in food assistance to vulnerable populations around the world, exacerbating root causes of protection risks for many children.   In just one example, after the value of food vouchers to refugees in Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh was cut by a third in the first half of 2023, there has been a reported increase in child neglect, child labour, gender-based violence, violence within the household, recruitment of boys into criminal groups, trafficking, and tension between refugee and host communities.   As more and more people are forced to flee situations of conflict, violence, and climate-induced disasters, the number of forcibly displaced people reached another record high in 2023 and is now over 114 million people. Children affected by forced displacement and statelessness face heightened risks of violence, neglect, abuse, and exploitation.   In Sudan, where the world’s largest child displacement crisis has unfolded since the outbreak of conflict in April 2023, unaccompanied and separated children are particularly vulnerable to recruitment by parties to the conflict.   Available data from some of the world’s most dangerous migration routes suggest that an increasing number of children in 2023 were unaccompanied or separated from families or caregivers.   More than 11,600 children crossed the Central Mediterranean Sea to Italy without their parents or legal guardians between January and mid-September 2023, an increase of 60% compared to the same period the previous year.   The Darien Gap—a remote, dangerous jungle crossing point between Colombia and Panama—saw a seven-fold increase in the numbers of children crossing in 2023 compared to 2022, amongst them a growing number of unaccompanied or separated children.   Without the care of families or other caregivers, children are at heightened risk of exploitation, abuse, and neglect, as well as recruitment into armed forces and armed groups, unsafe migration, child labour, gender-based violence, and experiencing prolonged gaps in access to education with increased likelihood of never returning to learning.   The unprecedented increase in children's rights violations and abuses throughout 2023, and in particular their right to protection, is alarming. Children (everyone under the age of 18) are a distinct group of rights-holders, with an additional set of rights accorded to them by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols, yet their rights are being flagrantly and increasingly violated with impunity.   For children today, this has a devastating impact on their right to survive and develop to their full potential. Dangerous cycles of violence are gaining momentum across many humanitarian contexts and are seriously jeopardising future peace while also impacting the ability of the children of tomorrow to survive and thrive.   Against a backdrop of increasingly complex, layered, and protracted humanitarian crises, growing needs, and widening funding gaps, it is more critical than ever to ensure all actors, work hand in hand to address children’s holistic protection and well-being needs. This requires children becoming a central element of all policies and decision making.   The protective factors that exist in a child's ecosystem are eroded during times of crises, and children face new and increased protection risks. Life-saving and life-sustaining protection services and supports, to meet increasing numbers of affected children and their families, need to be available and scalable.   While the best prevention remains the end to violence and hostilities and respect for the rights of civilians, particularly children, prevention of child protection harm is possible even amidst conflict and crises.   Humanitarian and development actors, including governments, can reduce the likelihood of Child Protection harms and child rights violations by addressing the root causes of harm. If we wait to act until a child suffers an abuse or violation, it is already too late, and the harm can have irreversible impacts. Preventing harm to children before it occurs is an ethical responsibility of all actors in humanitarian contexts, including governments.   It is upon all of us to stop the cycle of violence and adversity that is harming children at such scale. As we look ahead to 2024 and beyond it is imperative that children’s rights are protected as a priority, before, during, and post conflict and crises.   http://alliancecpha.org/en/TheUnprotected2023 http://alliancecpha.org/en/unprotected-analysis-funding-cpha-2023 http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/ http://blogs.prio.org/2023/12/more-and-more-children-at-risk-of-conflict/ http://data.stopwaronchildren.org/ http://www.unicef.org/children-under-attack http://www.ipsnews.net/2024/02/imperative-protect-children-war/ http://watchlist.org/resources/advocacy-resources/ http://www.savethechildren.net/news/worlds-10-largest-crises-force-over-10-million-children-their-homes-one-year-save-children http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/number-displaced-children-reaches-new-high-433-million Visit the related web page
	Child protection organisations demand action on vital online child sexual abuse regulation by ECLAG coalition, IWF, Brave, ECPAT, agencies   Oct. 2024   Social Media Victims Law Center World Mental Health Day lawsuit alleges social media companies design their products to be addictive and harmful to children on a global scale.   The Complaint asserts social media usage resulted in sextortion, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, eating and substance use disorders, and radicalization of minors.   The Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC), a legal resource for parents of children and teenage victims harmed by social media addiction and social media fueled harms, has filed a lawsuit on World Mental Health Day on behalf of 11 families in the United States and Canada whose children, ages 12 to 19, suffered physical and mental harms that could be directly attributed to their use of social media products.   The lawsuit seeks to hold Meta, Inc., ByteDance Ltd., Google, LLC, YouTube, LLC, and Discord, Inc., legally accountable for purposefully designing and marketing a defective product that provides consumers with no means to report or protect themselves, while targeting children with addictive features and unwanted “friend” recommendations, resulting in sextortion, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, eating disorders, substance use disorders, radicalization, and more.   Included in the Complaint is never before seen evidence of Meta failing and refusing to act on repeated reports of sextortion.   “There can be no doubt that social media companies are preying on our children with a product that is designed to ‘hook’ them to their products like an addictive drug,” said Matthew P. Bergman, founding attorney of SMVLC.   “We’ve started to see a societal shift as parents, researchers, and governments are mobilizing to address the danger these companies pose to children around the world. This isn’t just a problem in the U.S., it’s an unprecedented mental health crisis on a global scale.”   “This lawsuit is based on a growing body of scientific research, including these companies own internal studies which draws direct lines between their conscious, intentional design choices and the mental health crisis affecting children around the world.”   The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County and marks the 338th case SMVLC has filed against social media companies as part of California’s Judicial Council Coordination Proceedings (JCCP). To date, there are 745 lawsuits included in the JCCP which is seeking to hold social media companies legally accountable for knowingly concealing the harm they cause children and teens..   http://socialmediavictims.org/press-releases/smvlc-file-world-mental-health-day-lawsuit-allege-addictive-social-media-products-global-scale/ http://socialmediavictims.org/character-ai-lawsuits/ http://counterhate.com/research/youtube-anorexia-algorithm/   Feb. 2024   UN Special Rapporteur on sale and sexual exploitation of children, Mama Fatima Singhateh, alarmed by new emerging exploitative practices of online child sexual abuse.   “The internet and digital platforms can be a double-edged sword for children and young people. It can allow them to positively interact and further develop as autonomous human beings, claiming their own space. While also facilitate age-inappropriate content and online sexual harms of children by adults and peers.   The boom in generative AI and eXtended Reality is constantly evolving and facilitating the harmful production and distribution of child sexual abuse and exploitation in the digital dimension, with new exploitative activities such as the deployment of end-to-end encryption without built-in safety mechanisms, computer-generated imagery (CGI) including deepfakes and deepnudes, and on-demand live streaming and eXtended Reality (XR) of child sexual abuse and exploitation material.   Although access does not determine the value that children and young people derive from the Internet and digital products, the volume of reported child sexual abuse material has increased by 87% since 2019, according to WeProtect Global Alliance’s Global Threat Assessment 2023.   A review of numerous studies, publications and reports has revealed the intensification of manifestations of harm and exposure of online child sexual abuse and exploitation, both in terms of scale and method. It includes the risk of child sexual abuse and exploitation material, grooming and soliciting children for sexual purposes, online sexual harassment, intimate image abuse, financial sexual extortion and the use of technology-assisted child sexual abuse and exploitation material.   The private sector and the technology industry have proven to be less reliable than they claim to be, with serious ingrained biases, flaws in programming and surveillance software to detect child abuse, failure to crack down on child sexual abuse and exploitation networks, layoffs and cuts to community safety teams and workers. These practices and failings risk relentless repetition of trauma, secondary victimisation and systemic harm to individuals, including children.   While it is commendable that there has been increased political commitment, prioritisation and engagement on the use of ICTs and new technologies at the international level. Many legislative and regulatory efforts at national, regional and international levels seeking to address these problems present additional human rights risks due to insufficient integration of human rights considerations, gender-responsive and child-sensitive approaches.   Against this backdrop, States and companies must all work together and invest in solving this problem, and include children’s, victims’, survivors’ and relevant stakeholders’ voices in the design and development of ethical digital products to foster a safer online environment. This responsibility must be immediately embraced across society.   I welcome the Secretary-General’s AI Advisory Body’s mandate to make recommendations for the establishment of an international agency for the governance and coordination of AI.   Despite these positive initiatives, there is an urgent imperative to scale up efforts and connect through a core multilateral instrument dedicated exclusively to eradicating child sexual abuse and exploitation online, addressing the complexity of these phenomena and taking a step forward to protect children in the digital dimension.   It is now clear that greater and joint cooperation is needed to ensure a safer Internet for all children around the world. Commitments must go beyond paper.”   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/un-expert-alarmed-new-emerging-exploitative-practices-online-child-sexual http://www.weprotect.org/global-threat-assessment-23/   * In 2022, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline received more than 32 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation material, coming from all over the world.   Sep. 2023   Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and EU partners march in Brussels to demand action on vital child sexual abuse regulation   Today (September 19), the IWF joined child protection organisations, child sexual abuse survivors, young people and other advocates from across Europe to march on Brussels to ask EU leaders to ‘clean up the internet’ from sexual predators and protect children online.   In a defiant action to capture the attention of EU decision-makers, the ECLAG coalition took to the streets to show support for the proposed EU Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse.   Wearing “Child Safety ON” hazmat suits and warning signs, activists highlighted the dangers of the internet for children and called on EU leaders to use their political power to pass this legislation and protect children from sexual abuse online.   The action comes as new data from the European Commission’s Eurobarometer found that Europeans are widely strongly supportive of the bid to protect children online:   92% agree that children are increasingly at risk online. 82% agree that tools like parental control are not enough to keep children safe online. 78% support or strongly support the Commission’s proposal to fight child sexual abuse.   Across Europe, over 100 public figures from the arts, entertainment and sports worlds, academics, young people, child abuse survivors and child safety experts have also come together to sign an open letter calling for EU lawmakers to pass the European Commission’s CSA proposal.   The letter asks: “We put safety caps on medicine bottles, helmets on heads, and stabilisers on bikes. We cover plug sockets, secure stairs, and fasten seatbelts. We have never been better at keeping our children safe – so why can’t we keep them safe online? Children’s right to be protected shouldn’t be limited to the offline world.”   Youth activist Taveres Ferreira said: “Every second, at least two images or videos of child sexual abuse are shared online. This equates to over 52,000 images or videos in a working day, of which more than 60% are uploaded to servers in Europe. Behind each of these is someone who has to live with the long-term trauma from their abuse, the horrendous violation of their privacy, and the circulation of their images online. We need to act to clean up the internet from criminals who use it to harm our children.   “The Regulation currently discussed at the EU level is absolutely vital to ensure that all online platforms make sure their services are safe for children and that they detect and remove child sexual abuse materials. We are here to urge EU leaders in Brussels and throughout the EU to take action to clean up the internet and make it a safe place for children.”   In 2022, 40% of the child sexual abuse webpages found online featured a child under 10, and more of the most horrific categories of abuse were found online than ever before, according to the IWF.   This is a problem that the EU is at the heart of, as 60% of child sexual abuse reported is hosted in an EU member state.   Internet Watch Foundation CEO Susie Hargreaves said: “The IWF is proud to be walking alongside fellow child protection organisations and activists and survivors in support of this vital legislation to prevent the spread of child sexual abuse material online.   “These new laws would require online service providers to prevent, detect, report and remove these abhorrent images and videos on their networks and platforms, some of which continues to haunt survivors years after the abuse has happened.   “New IWF data shows that EU hosting of child sexual abuse material has increased by 26% so far this year, compared with the same period last year. And EU servers are hosting even more of the most extreme kinds of child sexual abuse imagery, which can include rape, bestiality, and sadism.   “This is why EU lawmakers need to take a stand. They cannot turn a blind eye and must push to finish negotiations on the regulation aimed at fighting child sexual abuse online.”   * The ECLAG coalition is formed of more than 60 child rights organisations working across the EU to raise awareness of the pressing need to protect children online in our ever developing digital world. The Steering Group of the coalition is made up of the Brave Movement, ECPAT International, Eurochild, the Internet Watch Foundation, Missing Children Europe, Terre des Hommes International Federation and Thorn.   Sep. 2023   Big Tech has allowed child sex abuse to become prolific online, writes Mie Kohiyama, Co-founder of the Brave Movement and child rights activist   The EU needs to lead the way in pushing through legislation that would force tech companies to prioritise children’s safety over their bottom line. I work alongside survivors and allies to end childhood sexual violence. One of the primary focuses of my activism today is to pressure Big Tech to take action against the dissemination of child sexual exploitation material on platforms used daily by millions of people around the world.   In 2022 alone, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline received more than 32 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation material, coming from all over the world.   We are not talking about a small number of criminals in a corner of the dark web. Child sexual abuse online is prolific. Enough is enough. It is time for decisive action to end this global crisis.   Social media, technology and gaming companies are putting profit over children’s safety and building products and services that allow childhood sexual violence to fester.   These technologies could be forces for good, and sources of entertainment, connection and opportunity for everyone, including young people and children. But, just like those who make toys, cars, clothing and other widely used products, the creators of these technologies have a responsibility to build safeguards, checks and mechanisms to ensure that they do not cause harm to users.   Technology companies and the brains that built them have decades of experience in navigating the digital world. They have shown over and over again they can quickly and efficiently reinvent, renovate and adapt their products to make them more appealing, easier to use and more profitable.   So when they shrug their shoulders and say they don’t have the tools to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from their platforms – and to be clear, this includes “Category A” online CSAM including the rape of children and even newborns, which has doubled since 2020 – we know that they are simply prioritising their bottom line.   Tech companies do have the skills and resources to build the defences we need to protect children. What they don’t have is the will to invest in and deploy those capabilities.   But responsibility does not end with tech companies. What about governments and regulators? Why are they not doing something? What do they exist for, if not to protect citizens from unaccountable power, regulate businesses to prevent harm and exploitation, and uphold human rights?   As a French citizen and survivor, I find it unbearable that more than 60 percent of reported CSAM is hosted in the European Union. European leaders can and must stop this. There is proposed legislation – EU Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse Offline and Online – that would make it mandatory for service providers to report child sexual abuse on their platforms and alert authorities so that predators can be brought to justice.   This is a unique opportunity to save millions of children from a lifetime of trauma. As the issue of child sexual violence online climbs the political agenda around the world, in the United Kingdom, United States, African Union and beyond, the EU has an opportunity to set a powerful precedent by voting to protect children and hold tech companies to account.   So we need European governments to be brave and bold. We need them to stand up taller in the face of doubters, detractors and disruptors. This is why, as the proposal reaches critical stages of debate in the European Parliament, Brave Movement survivors, youth activists and allies are taking collective action in Brussels and across Europe.   We are in Brussels today to ensure children and survivors are put first. We will not allow legislation to be watered down or have its credibility tainted by Big Tech bullies and their supporters.   I know survivors who were sexually abused and then suffered the dissemination of that abuse on the internet. One little girl was raped over several years. Images of these crimes have circulated the internet more than 100,000 times.   It is for these children and other survivors that we are here in Brussels to tell the members of the European Parliament and the EU member states: “We are watching you. Don’t fail us, and don’t fail the children.”   http://www.iwf.org.uk/news-media/news/iwf-and-eu-partners-march-in-brussels-to-demand-action-on-vital-child-sexual-abuse-regulation/ http://www.bravemovement.org/2023/01/12/brave-movement-calls-on-the-eu-to-urgently-pass-robust-legislation-2023-on-child-sexual-abuse-prevention-and-response/ http://www.missingkids.org/cybertiplinedata http://www.weprotect.org/alliance/civil-society/ http://ecpat.org/disrupting-harm/ http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/19/eu-investigation-tiktok-online-content-child-safeguarding http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-sale-of-children   # The Regulation was first proposed in May 2022 by the European Commission and will impose obligations on digital platforms to perform risks assessments and adopt risk mitigation measures on child sexual abuse. It will also allow for national jurisdictions to issue detection and removal orders of child sexual abuse material. Visit the related web page
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