In fact, ITU has begun to pay attention to the ICT capacity building of young people. At the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference held in 2002, member countries suggested finding relevant ways to integrate youth issues into ITU's development activities and strengthen youth's capacity building in information and communication technologies. In 2003, world leaders adopted the Declaration of Principles of the World Summit on the Information Society, recognizing that young people are the future workforce and the main force in adopting information and communication technologies, and therefore calling on all parties concerned to enhance this ability of young people.
In addition, meeting the needs of children and vulnerable groups for information and communication technology has attracted increasing attention from the international community. The Plan of Action of the World Summit on the Information Society calls on governments to meet the special requirements of children, especially marginalized children and other disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, through their national information and communication strategies, and to ensure that these groups are fully integrated into the information society by adopting appropriate educational management and legislative measures. Action opportunities also encourage the design and launch of information and communication technology services, so that young people (especially marginalized children) can easily use these services at affordable prices, and further promote the development of technologies, applications and contents suitable for their needs through the application of assistive technologies.
ITU believes that information and communication technology is a means to mainstream and empower children, and a way to reach children and young people who need crisis intervention, rehabilitation, counseling or just talking to people. With the successful implementation of the child helpline project in some countries, a network called "International Child Helpline" has spread all over the world. So far, 7 1 country has established 82 child helplines. In 2003, child helplines around the world received about 65,438+065,438+300,000 calls for help from children and adolescents. Children's help hotline is also the core content of UNICEF's main action plan, so the establishment and maintenance of children's help hotline has become one of UNICEF's key tasks. The United Nations Committee on the Rights and Interests of the Child is also one of the parties that suggested setting up a child helpline.