UNICEF called for more intensive cooperation of the whole society so that children are digitally literate and safe in the online world.
"Every day, more than 175 new Internet users are children - one new child every half a second," announced UNICEF, on the occasion of marking Safe Internet Day.
They warned that children on the Internet face numerous risks, such as accessing harmful content, sexual exploitation and abuse, cyberbullying, and misuse of private data.
Director of data, research and policy at UNICEF, Lawrence Chandy, said that every day thousands of children access the Internet for the first time, which exposes them to many dangers.
"While governments and the private sector have made some progress in formulating policies and approaches to eliminate the greatest risks online, more efforts must be made to fully understand and protect children's lives online," Chandy said.
UNICEF stated that one out of three Internet users is a child, and pointed to their recently published report which warns that too little is being done to protect children from dangers in the digital world.
The report states that the responsibility to protect children in the digital world is the duty of all, including governments, families, schools and other institutions, and that the private sector has a significant and unique responsibility to shape the impact of digital technology on children.
The head of the UNICEF representative office in Montenegro, Osama Kogali, said that the Internet, like many other innovations, brought new risks for children.
Kogali added that in Montenegro, 38 percent of children had at least one unpleasant experience on the Internet during the past year, while 27 percent do not know what to do when someone harasses them on the Internet.
In order to place children at the center of digital policies, UNICEF called for the development of more intensive cooperation between governments, civil society, United Nations agencies and other international children's organizations and the private sector.
They suggested establishing deeper collaboration between policymakers, law enforcement and the technology industry, protecting children's privacy, empowering children online by providing equal access to the Internet for all children and strengthening digital literacy, involving the private sector in children's digital literacy and obtaining better access data , opportunities and risks for children on the Internet.
UNICEDF reminded that a broad social partnership was established through the Stop online violence campaign in Montenegro with the aim of building an inclusive, digital society through raising awareness and digital literacy of children, parents and teachers.
UNICEF's research in Montenegro, as they stated, showed that the risk of a child having an unpleasant experience on the Internet is higher in families where parents guide their children less on how to use the Internet safely.
UNICEF reminded that the educational game NETPrijatelji has been developed, which guides children through real-life scenarios and teaches them to recognize, prevent, stop and report violence on the Internet.
"The goal is for children and young people to learn to use the Internet responsibly and smartly and to recognize and report violence on the Internet through play and conversation with teachers, parents and peers," they stated in the announcement.
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