Brazilian leader receives UN telecom agency’s top honour

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva today was bestowed with the United Nations World Telecommunication & Information Society Award for his efforts to protect children from online predators while expanding access to the Internet for his nation’s citizens.

The presentation of the honour came on the heels of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, which is celebrated annually on 17 May and marks the founding of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on that day in 1865.

The theme for this year’s day is “Protecting Children in Cyberspace,” and ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said at today’s awards ceremony in Geneva that the Internet has much to offer to young people, serving as a “nursery for young minds to grow and expand their horizons.”

With over 1.5 billion people online worldwide, he cautioned that “easily the most vulnerable segment of these users is children – whose natural curiosity, trusting attitude and tech-smart approach to the world make them easy targets for predators and criminals.”

Characterizing this as a worldwide problem, Mr. Touré called for a global response from all segments of society.

“We want to protect, but also expand access to cyberspace, especially for the disadvantaged,” Mr. Lula said in a videotaped message to the ceremony.

Also honoured by ITU today were Rob Conway, CEO of GSMA, an association of mobile phone operators and equipment suppliers, and Deborah Taylor Tate, former Commissioner of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

They were recognized for their work in shielding children from online dangers.

In his message commemorating the Day, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that “without safeguards, [children’s] precious lives are at grave risk in the vicious world of cybercriminals and paedophiles that prey on easy targets.”

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child both recognizes the right to access to information but also accords protection against all forms of inducement to engage in unlawful activities, the he said, calling for these provisions to be applied rigorously.

“The virtual world has exciting possibilities for nurturing children and helping them grow into creative, productive adults,” Mr. Ban said, calling on policy-makers and industry leaders to take action to ensure the safety of all in the rapidly-evolving virtual world.

Today also marks the start of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum, a week-long gathering co-hosted by the ITU, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

A focus for discussion will be how information and communications technology (ICT) can most effectively help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a series of eight internationally agreed anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.

Other themes participants will tackle include climate change and ICTs, e-government and public/private partnerships, enhancing global policing capabilities and protecting children from cyber-exploitation.