The “ITU Regional Strategy Workshop on Child Online Protection (COP) for the Arab Region: Empowering the Future Digital Citizens” will hold in Cairo, Egypt on October 25 -26. The workshop is organized by the ITU Arab Regional Office as part of its operational plan for 2015, and is hosted by and organized with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in Egypt (MCIT) and under the umbrella of the League of Arab States (LAS).

With a strong emphasis on shared responsibility for children and youth, the workshop will raise awareness of challenges concerning COP, and will facilitate sharing of related knowledge and experience in making the online world safer for the most vulnerable citizens.

The event will provide a platform for different stakeholder groups – policy makers, the private sector, law enforcement agencies, International Organizations and others – to discuss issues and opportunities pertaining to the protection of children and youth online.

MCIT International Relations Division Director Nermine El Saadany will give welcome remarks in the opening session. The two-day workshop is divided into seven sessions, each will tackle COP issues from a specific perspective including the Arab scene in COP, policy and legal measures, role of industry and technical measures, education and awareness raising, scientific research and indicators and finally the way forward and key recommendations.

The workshop tries to build a coherent COP strategy framework for the Arab region that copes with the international goals and guarantee a safe online world for the Arab children and youth digital citizens, empowered and protected children and youth.

Egypt presides the ITU Working Group on Child Online Protection and is a member in the ITU Child Online Protection initiative. Egypt, also, activated the National Committee for Child Online Safety comprising a group of partners from the public sector, private sector and civil society and those interested in the field of protecting children on the Internet.