Online Child Safety, Civil Society and the Private Sector: Alternative Strategies

Abstract

Whilst governments have an undoubted role to play in shaping child protection policy, increasingly, it is in the outcome of the interactions between governments, NGOs, voluntary organisations and industry where the tangible results of the policymaking debates and collaborations will emerge in homes, schools and communities (Dutton et al., 2007). The question of how civil society, the private sector and the State respond to the transnational character of the threats facing children is a complex and challenging one (Giddens, 1990). It is not possible to do justice to the many issues raised by this question, nor is it possible to undertake a detailed examination of the role of NGOs and the industry in enhancing the safety of children at the domestic and regional level. That said, the neglect of these interactions in current online child safety policymaking justifies, at the very least, an attempt made to describe their significance for MSIG (Falk, 1995; Grugel, 2003). Indeed, the increasing role of civil society in this area of child protection has contributed to the creation of a new climate for children’s rights advocacy and development of collaborative transnational networks. To this end, the work of the UN and its related organisations, and the engagement of stakeholders in the three World Congresses and the SIP, demonstrates an important paradigm shift in the way transnational actors and civil society appear to assume responsibility for policing the online environment and enforcing child safety norms through the adoption of extra-legal strategies (ECPAT, 2009). Consequently, to understand online child safety governance, we cannot limit our focus to the efforts of law enforcement or legislation enacted by States. It is only by understanding the contributions made by non-State actors that we can gain some useful insights into the pivotal role of the MSIG strategy in enabling States to fulfil their national and international commitments towards children. Two questions will provide the focal point for this chapter. There is a particular need for everyone concerned in online child safety to have some understanding as to why NGOs, voluntary organisations and the private sector have increasingly become key actors in the online safety regulatory landscape. The second question relates to identifying the processes which enable children’s rights principles and legal standards to become an integral part of the evolving MSIG framework. The chapter will begin with a brief account of the relationship between modernity, civil society and the State in relation to the protection of children from online sexual exploitation and abuse. It then integrates some of the insights offered by commentators like Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens, first introduced in Chapter 2, into the activities of some of the key international, regional and national organisations and explains their significance for the emerging MSIG model for safeguarding children in the online environment (Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1991). The final part of the discussion considers some of the self- and co-regulatory models of good governance being used to enhance the safety of children in the online environment. The chapter concludes with the observation that the MSIG model represents an apt example of reflexive modernisation (Ayres et al., 1992). How we measure the effectiveness of this model will be an ongoing area of tension in online child safety policymaking (Eurochild, 2011).