First Lady Erdoğan attends “International Policy and Practice Exchange on Child Protection in the Digital Environment” meeting

First Lady Emine Erdoğan attended a meeting held in Ankara by the Ministry of Family and Social Services in cooperation with the office of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence Against Children and UNICEF with the theme of “International Policy and Practice Exchange on Child Protection in the Digital Environment”.

Speaking at the event, First Lady Erdoğan stated that today children not only spend time in the digital world, but they also grow up and build their social relations, values and identities in this world, and said: “Unfortunately, we as adults are excluded from this world due to the label of digital immigrant tagged on us. Not only our right to draw boundaries in the digital world, of which children are declared to be inhabitants, have been taken from us, but also any step taken so far within this framework has unfortunately been blocked under the pretext of censorship. Parents have been accused of being narrow-minded whenever they have voiced their concerns. Governments have been accused of being oppressive when regulations about digital platforms have been an issue of social policies. And unfortunately this has caused children and the youth to be surrounded by cyber bullying, digital addiction, personal data abuse, violent contents, discrimination and hate speech. Today we pay the price of this boundlessness with the damages emerged in children’s psychological, mental, cognitive, social and physical developments.”

Stressing that Türkiye is taking important steps to protect children, First Lady Erdoğan went on to say: “We approach to the matter with a holistic strategy through the “Action Plan on Empowering Children in the Digital World” implemented by the Ministry of Family and Social Services. Also, the Convention on Children’s Rights in the Digital World, prepared by the Ministry of Family and Social Services as well, which aims to protect, support and empower children in digital platforms, is an important call at international scale. On this occasion, I call on all the stakeholders to sign this convention. Let us always remember that making the digital world safer for children is the shared responsibility of public institutions, technology companies, international organizations and media industry, not just of families. It is especially a must for technology companies to be accountable and produce child-friendly designs.”