Axios House: "Parents have the toughest job" in today's online era, expert says

NEW YORK – Kids are navigating a digital world in which their parents might have little guidance because of new technologies that are more commonplace, United Nations child safety advocate Lucha Sotomayor said at Axios House at Climate Week and the UN General Assembly.

Why it matters: Children's online security has become a top issue for parents, educators and policymakers as the digital era presents new threats to youth safety and mental health.

• Axios' Dave Lawler spoke with Sotomayor, program officer at the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children, at the Sept. 23 event. The event was sponsored by Roblox.

What they're saying: Because many of today's parents didn't spend their formative years communicating on the internet, they need to be taught how to help their kids who might have online safety issues, Sotomayor pointed out.

• "I think parents have the toughest job," Sotomayor said. "We were not taught to prevent these types of risks – parents naturally replicate the ways that they were brought up."
• "I did not grow up with the internet and nobody taught our generation on how to prevent and address risks online, so there's a huge digital divide."

The big picture: "When we look at the internet as a place that needs to be safer for children, we need to look at both" making the internet safer for children and helping to make it easier for kids to report it if they are experiencing harm online, Sotomayor said.

The intrigue: Children themselves are getting creative in ways to help their peers report harm online.

• "This was a Polish girl in 2020 who created this fake cosmetic store, and you were 'buying' makeup, but actually you were reporting some form of violence depending on the kind of makeup or product that you were buying, the form of harm that you were looking for help around," Sotomayor said.
• "You could even talk to a 'sales assistant' who was a protection officer, and [she] could even connect you to the police if needed. That's a child using the internet to create safety."

Content from the sponsored segment:

In a View From the Top conversation, Roblox vice president of civility and partnerships Tami Bhaumik and Michael Preston, executive director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, emphasized the need to increase online safety efforts for young people.

• "We actually just recently announced that everyone on the Roblox platform will have to have facial age estimation," Bhaumik said, adding they hope to have the technology integrated for all users by the end of the year.
• "Once you sign up, you have to make sure that we know how old you are. … It's accurate within two years. … If you come out between 12 and 14, it will always default to youngest – so 12 – so you'll have fewer features available to you."