Symposium of Safer Internet Day 2018
On February 6, 2018, Symposium of Safer Internet Day 2018 was held at Japan committee for UNICEF, and it was co-organized by ECPAT/STOP Japan, Safer Internet Association, SAKURA internet Inc. and YAHOO! JAPAN with participation of about 100 people including government (National Police Agency, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan), private sector dealing with internet, NGOs, mass media, and the Swedish Embassy. The symposium started with greeting from the Japan committee for UNICEF which is an organizer of this symposium, and from Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and the first half of the symposium focused on the initiatives by private sector and cooperation between private sector and organization to protect children from sexual exploitation online. The latter half of the symposium was titled as“a round-table talk on child raising and internet by father and mother working in the IT industry”and speakers introduced idea to protect children from various problems online.
At the beginning of the symposium, Ms. Miyamoto, co-representative of ECPAT/STOP Japan, explained the objective of this symposium, work of ECPAT/STOP Japan, and global initiative to protect children from sexual exploitation. She also introduced how Japan has improved law to address the issue effectively and how multiple stakeholders such as private sector and ministries have collaborated well, resulting in the establishment of the hotline center and introduction of blocking system. Considering that the number of the cases of child pornography became the highest in 2016, she emphasized the need to continue holding this symposium and strengthen cooperation among stakeholders.
This symposium was made possible by the strong commitment of the participants who joined the meeting of stakeholders held after Safer Internet Day in 2017. While cooperation among stakeholders has been strengthened, ECPAT/STOP Japan will commit to address sexual exploitation of children in Japan and overseas.
