Soft laws for online child safety in works
The Digital Economy and Society (DE) Ministry is creating international-based guidelines for children’s internet safety as soft laws for more effective protection.
The guidelines will be sourced from a best practices and global policies exchange at the country’s first international conference on “Building a Safe Online Environment for Children”, hosted by the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) during Feb 8-9.
Expected to be effective by mid-year, the measures are seen as a complement to the ETDA’s “Internet for a Better Life” project that was implemented in 2016 to create awareness of online safety via training courses, media and digital contents.
DE Minister Pichet Durongkaveroj said the guidelines need to be jointly developed by the DE Ministry and other agencies such as the Education Ministry and the Social Development and Human Security Ministry, as well as local communities nationwide.
Mr Pichet was a key speaker at the conference yesterday alongside several renowned figures such as executives from Facebook, Google and 3DU Play, media experts, and academics from international institutions.
According to the ETDA’s latest report on internet user behaviour, young people below the age of 17 on average spend 5.48 hours per day on the internet during the week and 7.12 hours on the weekend. The top online activity is social media.
This has increased the opportunity and occurrence of several types of online threats, including cyberbullying, deceit, obscenity and child abuse.
Reckless online usage can also bring about other harms, such as privacy breaches.
“The important issue is how to make the internet a safe place protecting children from abusive and harmful content,” Mr Pichet said. “The measures or guidelines to create awareness must be constructive rather than strict regulations alone.”
Mr Pichet said the international conference marked the first time that Thailand had addressed the problems of the online ecosystem, regarding children in particular, aimed at sharing experiences, best practices and ideas on policies and regulations.
ETDA president Surangkana Wayuparb said the “Internet for a Better Life” project has provided training courses for digital use and awareness of threats to some 2,000 children.
The upcoming guidelines will help generate greater measures for the ETDA and related agencies to implement positive ways to build a safe online environment.
“Building a safe online ecosystem needs local and global attention,” she said, adding that in many countries officials use the legal processes to effectively protect children.
Thailand recently revised the penal code to impose sanctions on possession of media that displays children obscenely, for which online media is included.
This resonates with fundamental conventions for children’s rights, drawing on measures against child sexual exploitation, mostly laid out by Unicef.