Coinciding with World Children’s Day
The second Childhood Forum, organized by the Family Affairs Council (FAC) under the theme “Our Children and the Digital World,” will kick off on Saturday to coincide with the International Children’s Day, which falls on November 20 every year.
The forum aims to enhance the protection and care efforts provided by the Council for the benefit of the family and children, in line with the Kingdom’s great efforts to protect children from various types of abuse, neglect, discrimination and exploitation, and in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which seeks to provide a safe, sound and positive environment for children, enabling them to develop their skills, abilities, and protect them psychologically and physically.
The Secretary-General of the Family Affairs Council, Dr. Hala bint Mazeed Al-Tuwaijri, stressed: “This forum comes in conjunction with the International Children’s Day 2021 in light of the challenges posed by the digital world, especially providing a safe digital environment for our children, as well as the opportunities that can be seized that contribute to the development of children’s skills and keep pace with the times.
Dr. Al-Tuwaijri pointed to the awareness-raising role that the forum plays in spreading family awareness regarding children’s activity in the digital environment, and how to maximize the positives and minimize the negatives in this field.
The forum highlights the vital and effective roles of the family, civil society organizations and the media to promote and protect children in light of the rapid digital development and the challenges and pressures it poses to children and their families, as studies and statistics indicate that two-thirds of Internet users worldwide are children.
The forum reviews concepts related to children’s rights in the digital world, legislation, regulations and policies that deal with these rights, to know the current situation, in addition to the family tools and means available in the fields of awareness, education and training that can be used by parents to enable them to monitor, support and protect their children to effectively and purposefully use and access digital content that is appropriate for their developmental stage.
The Childhood Forum also addresses the most prominent challenges facing children and caregivers in how to mitigate the harms while maximizing the benefits of the Internet for each child, presenting the negatives and positives on children’s development, highlighting the most needed digital skills in enabling children to use the digital environment safely and effectively, in addition to the most important current and future international and local digital initiatives in the field of protecting and supporting children in the digital world, and addressing the means and methods of harnessing technology to develop all basic development sectors for children to improve the quality of services provided to children and the quality of their lives.
The forum is attended by a group of experts and those interested in the field of childhood and the digital world from inside and outside the Kingdom, through specialized dialogue sessions led by members of the Kingdom’s Childhood Advisory Committee, which contribute to thinking about ways to improve the lives of children and their enjoyment of all the rights stipulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, including protection and care in a safe digital environment, focusing on awareness of children’s development, health, safety and welfare in the digital world, identifying the proper methods appropriate for the use of technology, in addition to the role of the Childhood Advisory Committee in childhood issues in the digital world, communication skills in the digital world, and the role of the Childhood Advisory Committee.
