 Please stand up and let's welcome her excellence Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica, her excellent patients, Jonathan, First Lady of Nigeria, and Dr. Hamarun Toure, ITU Secretary-General. Thank you very much. I would also want to welcome Deborah Tate to moderate the session. Thank you all so much, and please be seated. I hope that you all are as excited and thrilled as I am to be here and look out at all of you all from all over the world. Truly, this is a global experience for all of us, and I'm just thrilled to be here to moderate with this esteemed panel, and we are so very thrilled that the President has been able to join us. So why do you all think that these esteemed leaders are here for three days, investing in you, along with top CEOs from corporations all over the world, spending days here with you, non-profits and foundations, philanthropists and investors who want to invest in your future? Many of them have paid for you all to come to this beautiful country of Costa Rica. So why? Anybody know why? It's a one-word answer. You. You. To ustedes que you. So we are so, so thrilled, and I want all of us as adults to applaud you all for being here. Well, I've already heard from many speakers, and they have said that we want you here to help us work toward the future that you dream of, that you dream of for yourselves, for your jobs, for your children, and for your grandchildren. We want to be your voice, and as the President says, we want to take your voice to the United Nations this fall. You, your creativity, your entrepreneurship, curiosity, and your fearlessness. You will help us solve the very real political, social, economic, health care issues of this transformative time in your own community, in your own nation, and for the entire world. So yesterday, I went all around and saw you all. You were negotiating. You were collaborating. You were learning together. You learned new technology skills. You learned new communications skills. You created music and apps and platforms. You've become empowered advocates, and you've learned how to build an enterprise and not be afraid to fail. So today, we all want to talk to you about how we need your voice to reach out to others. We need your ideas to reach out, to be the train the trainer, to create an ad campaign or a video that helps us reach younger youth and children, and to protect them in a safe and secure, trusted environment, because that's the world in which you all live and certainly our younger children do. We are fortunate, again, to have three of the very strongest global voices sitting right here in front of you all. They are using their official titles, their official platforms, and as you will see, their personal commitments, all for you, for the children of the world, for children everywhere. So again, you are why we're gathered here, but you are also a crucial component to making sure that COP Child Online Protection is successful to educate and empower other youth, and especially our youngest citizens, with all the opportunities that are out there available to them, and yet the challenges in this virtual, yet very real world. Secretary General, you have been an unbelievable leader, establishing the first special envoy for Child Online Protection, and we thank you for that. He is not only a VIP with titles and degrees that you can read about in his bio, but like some of you all out there, was a small boy in a village in Africa. Timbuktu, am I right? I still want to go. And like many of you all, he didn't have any connectivity, obviously, at that point in time to the outside world. Yet his brain, just like yours, was absolutely brimming with creativity and ideas and goals. What an inspiration he is to all of you, to all of us. He has lived around the world. He holds the highest title Secretary General at the oldest UN organization, the ITU. He speaks six languages, maybe by now seven, has multiple degrees, and is a visionary leader for ICT. But today, he is here because of you, and because of his commitment to this education and empowerment, and for millions of kids around the world. So, Mr. Secretary General, when you look out here and you see this world of faces, what is your advice to help them not only be you, but be the next world leader? Thank you very much, Debbie. And I feel privileged to be sitting on this podium next to Her Excellency President Chinchia of Costa Rica. Our global patron for child online protection. President Chinchia has shown this leadership, and this is why she wanted us to organize this event here. And I'm simply humbled by the privileges that we have received here. I would like you to know, Madam President, that your team has done a fantastic job. Let's give them a round of applause. And I feel equally privileged to be sharing the stage with Her Excellency Dr. Madam Jonathan. She is the first lady of Nigeria. She is the largest country in Africa, in terms of population, and her leadership in ensuring the safety of children in her country has been second to none. And this is why ITU has chosen to ask her to lead the efforts in the continent with the first ladies who know that pillow diplomacy works very well. When we have the first lady, we know the first man will be following us soon. And I feel privileged that we have our friends and colleagues from the private sector. This session is co-organized along with Disney Company. Disney is here. Ellen, is Ellen here in the room? Please stand up. Stand up. She's over there. And UNICEF, our colleagues from UNICEF also are the ones who are organizing this event with us, and we feel very much honored. And this comes along with the numerous private companies from Oredo to Intel to Cisco, Microsoft, that have been very, very actively supporting us. The cause we are defending here is one common denominator, the future of children. And when I'm talking to my children and my grandchildren, I have two of them. And I tell them to be sure that they behave in the online world just like they are behaving in the offline world. Because the issue of cyber security is equally important in the cyber space than in the real world. We tend to tell our children when they are living out, going out in the street. We tend to tell them not to follow a stranger, not to accept even a candy from someone they don't know. It could be a drug. But we tend not to advise them when they are surfing in the safety of their bedrooms or of their classrooms. And sometimes even a picture that you can naively put on the web stays forever and you might regret what you have done many years to come and it will never go away. And therefore it's important that we work together. But this conference, as Debbie said, is about you. Debbie was the first special envoy for child online protection that I put in place because she, as a former FCC commissioner, she has done wonderful work in her own state. What's the name of your state again? Nashville, Tennessee. In Tennessee she was a very strong force in terms of ensuring many programs are made for children there and we are really having a wonderful journey. Today we are blessed that you have accepted to come and you are giving us an opportunity to bring something to the United Nations and be part of your contribution for the future of this planet that will be in your hands after all. And therefore we feel privileged that we are embarking on this journey with you and I cannot tell you how happy I am in sharing the excitement that you are bringing together here. Thank you, SG. Next I want to ask her Excellency Dame Dr. Patience Jonathan, the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the ITU's Child Online Protection Champion and President of the African First Lady's Peace Mission. We are so thrilled, as the Secretary General said to have you. So both with all of your titles and as a mother, how will you tell your children and the children of Nigeria to be safe online? Do you have some words for our youth? High Excellency, the President of Costa Rica and Excellency, the Secretary General of Nigeria. While as a mother, we know that this period in time is the era of internet time for the younger ones for the youth. So as a mother, you are the first teacher to the child because charity begins at home. And as a mother, what do you do? You guide this child so that whenever the child goes into the internet, the child will know what and what to look at for. And at the same time as a mother, you open communication channels between you the mother and the child so that the child will be free to communicate with you. And you build confidence on the child as a mother so that the child will have self-esteem and the child will trust you and believe in you as a mother. And at the same time as a mother, you should know that we tell this child that in the internet, there is benefits and risks also in the internet. That means advantages and disadvantages when it comes to online. So we let the child know that both the benefits is people that post it into the internet. And also the disadvantages, the risks is also people post it into the internet. So you the child, whatever you put into the internet is what you get out of the internet. That means garbage in and garbage out of the internet. So this child, your own child, you have to make sure that you tell the child that look when you enter into the internet, not all informations, you should release out inside the internet. Just like I will use example what happened in my country as example to you people right now. There is a girl called Cynthia and this girl is a student in the university. But because she is not aware that there is also risk connected into the internet. So she has a friend in Facebook and now she trust his friends so much. And this girl, her father is a retired general. So what does she do now? She now puts all her information across to that friend and now she tell the friend that I am going to his city, her legos, home, so so so so please and wait for me. And that friend actually went there and wait for her and she and that friend met. But you know because she, you know she is just ignorant about it. Because the parents did not tell her that there is also fraudster risk connected to the internet. And when she reached there, this friend took her to the hotel and collected all her money and even killed her there. So as a mother you must make it, communicate with the child. Open communication channel between you, the mother and the child so that the child will be afraid to tell you when she open the internet and come across cyber threats. She will be able to tell you the mother. Thank you. Thank you, Her Excellency. And now for our honored guest, Madam President Laura Chinchi Amaranda. We give you our utmost appreciation for serving as our patron for the Child Online Protection and all you have done. And in fact, you all may not really realize this but it was the President's dream. So can you imagine that the President of a country has spent these past three days off and on being with us. But it took an entire year of preparation for you all to be here today. A President who has changed her country and the world. She's encouraged this incredible ecotourism. She has supported anti-crime legislation to make Costa Rica a safer place. And she's created the stable and yet progressive regulatory environment for major investments like for companies like Intel to locate here and provide jobs for the youth of Costa Rica. She has concentrated on empowering her citizens to be healthier like today in the stadium and the be healthy track that we had today and enhanced educational tools. So why would an important President like this be here? One word because of you. So I want to ask you, Madam President, as the world leader, what would you tell this generation about building awareness in their own countries when they return home and especially about good digital citizenship for all children? Thank you. Thank you very much, Deborah. Truly, for me, it's an honor to be here on this panel that is being led by such a great woman that has been done so much for the cause that we're currently debating. And of course, to share with the Secretary General who has given us this marvelous opportunity to all the Costa Rican citizens of being the host country of a debate of such importance and so pressing. And we also thank the First Lady for having traveled so far away to share with us the citizens of Latin America. Many of the concerns that are being debated in our continent, which is part of this global discussion. This is why as part of what we're celebrating here today is to call the youth from all parts of the globe. And I'm fully convinced you all share our same concerns and probably you will approach the same conclusions to these problems. The point here is to face these challenges to share with others who are not part of this experience but who will also be needing a lot of the answers that you will be coming up with and you will be developing in these days that you've been sharing here together. In a way, when I was paying attention to the Secretary General and to the First Lady during their preliminary remarks they, in a way, were stating something that is quite fundamental. Whenever we're talking about how we can conciliate freedom and responsibility or freedom and safety and in a way the use of the Internet involves for humanity is, well, greater progress, greater wellness and of course above all else freedom. However, like any other phenomena that human evolution has faced with more opportunities that a tool gives us to express ourselves and also we have to have greater responsibility in each and every one of us. So there's a basic rule when we're facing the discussion about safety and responsibility and the Internet and on the use of technological innovation. Well, the basic premise that every single human being has to behave responsibly. If I have greater freedom or if I have access to a greater level of freedom it's also because I have the obligation to be a much more responsible person. And so, above all else, there are three, let's call them, reflections that I would like to mention here today. And these points are things that force us to question ourselves on this panel on how to grant greater security through the use of technology and information for those in our society who are more vulnerable, the children, how to ensure that we can protect the children online. First of all, I believe that first of all we need to think responsibly. Second, we need to think collectively. And thirdly, we need to think intelligently. From the perspective of responsibility, as I mentioned in the basic remark that we started with on this panel you can't request greater levels of freedom. You can't assume that we have tools that make us more free if we're not willing to be more responsible. And this is a basic rule of ethics that we need to impose on using the Internet and which I believe assumes, above all else, a cultural revolution. Because I do want to mention that I have also been a great defendant of freedom on the Internet and I am very bothered by certain regulations under the excuse of freedom some governments want to impose. But if we don't want governments or agencies to impose restrictions on us, that may seem even absurd. On the freedom that we have online, the only way to do this is to be responsible as users ourselves. And there's a sort of code of ethics that forces us to be responsible. And this commitment, we take it every day with our behavior and on how we share our experiences. We also need to think collectively. The Internet, in a way, by generating the possibility of being anonymous, can promote more individualistic activities and if we want to call them so even selfish. But we need to keep in mind that, to the contrary, this is a globalization of experiences. This is a globalization of opportunities, but it's also one of risks. We need to think collectively. Not anything of what we do or none of what we say on the Internet is something that concerns me alone. It concerns everybody, the whole community. And thirdly, we need to think smart. And this is why we have you here today. Because I have no doubt whatsoever that you are committed and you're responsible. I have no doubt that you feel part of a global collective. But we also need you to be smart. This intelligence of yours, of the youth of today, can provide to the world truths, the education and to the exceptional access that you've had to digital technologies is used smart in an intelligent fashion. We want to hear your measures. We want to hear your options. We want to hear about your programs. We want to hear about your different notions of how to improve everything that is related to security online to protect our children. Thank you very much. We want you all to be able to get to work. So I think we might have enough time for one question from the audience and maybe the Secretary General might want to respond to it. Anyone want to ask a question before we go to breakout groups? Yes, there's it. Good afternoon. I'm going to speak Spanish. Okay. Good afternoon. My name is Maria Laura. I'm from Costa Rica. One of the things that we've been talking about here is technology. But I'd like to know what the role of technology is. How could we make technology a little more accessible for children and young people? Something that I've noticed in this conference is that in this scenario we've had like four women but we've had a lot more men. How could we do to break that gap? Because of poverty, because of gender, because of technological access. In some countries women have fewer options for technology and development in these areas. And how could we, as young people, invite the girls who are interested in technological areas and engineering? Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for your question. I'm going to answer you in French this time. I think it's very important that we continue this question without a repeat, because the question of gender equality in all areas, including the areas of information technology and communication, is very important. And we at the International Union of Telecommunications have addressed this question very early during my mandate as Secretary-General of the United States. And this was culminated in 2010 during the PENIPOTENTIER conference held in this region here in Mexico, in Guadalajara, precisely, where we have made a certain number of quite important resolutions concerning the women and the girls in information technology and communication. First of all, by ensuring their access, an equal access to all to information technology and communication, but also to promote career opportunities for young girls and women in the field of information technology and communication. In the United Nations system, I share this very good experience that we do in the International Union of Telecommunications, which would allow us to open the doors to young girls and women in the most professional careers. In fact, at the bottom of the scale, there may be a majority of young girls and women, but the higher the pyramid, obviously, the number of women decreases a lot. This is reflected in many other areas. In the Fortune 500, we have only 20 women who are the president of the great societies, and this decreases even more when you go up to Fortune 1000. The 1000 most important companies in the world are really not in a balanced way led by women and men. We have... Okay, there is no translation from French, so I'll have to repeat what I'm saying. Okay. It was very eloquent, Mr. Secretary General. Let me finish my statement in French first, because I would also like to say that we have decided, for example, in the United Nations, to have a day on Thursday, Thursday is the fourth day of the week, Thursday is the fourth month of every year, so the fourth Thursday of April, which is a global day dedicated to young women and young girls in the field of technology, information and communication. This is a global day that we celebrate in order to encourage the entry of young women and women in this field. And we also encourage the recruitment of women and girls in the field of science. So let me say that in English. I believe that it's very important to address this issue in every major conference, because the issue of gender equality is of utmost importance for all of us. In fact, 51% of the world population are women. 51. And therefore, we need to measure that they have the equal opportunity in the areas of information and communication technologies. We at ITU have addressed this issue from the beginning when I was elected as Secretary General, when I took office in 2007, and it culminated during our Plenty Potential Conference that took place in this region, in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2010, where we adopted a number of resolutions, not only for ITU, but for all of the member states, the 193 member states, for programs that will be encouraging women and girls, not only in the ICT field, but also will give them the opportunity to use ICT in their daily life. We're also promoting women to have careers in the ICT field, and this not only will be at the lower level of the scale, because in every company, when you look at it, you'll find more women at the lower level of the scale. But when as the pyramid, you go up in the pyramid, there are less women. In fact, it applies to the Fortune 500, where you only have 20 women CEOs among the Fortune 500, and the number goes even lower when you go to Fortune 1,000. Of course, we have some women leaders here, but we still have a long way to go in order to make sure that there is a proper balance. Yesterday, during the session, I was referring to one country, Rwanda. Are you from Rwanda here? Stand up, stand up, stand up. You know, I like to give your country as an example, because this is one country where the president has decided to have total parity across all sectors of life. There are 50% women in the parliament, 50% women in the government, 50% women ambassadors of that country. As a matter of fact, all the ambassadors in Geneva that I've seen from Rwanda have been women except one. So we need to probably work a little bit on the other side. No, I'm not trying to here to defend men's right. I think we still have to make sure that we are defending women's right, and especially knowing the fact that we all learn our first lessons from our mothers. And this is very important. But we need to continue this to remind ourselves of the importance of education. Basic education will be key in making sure that women do get the right, but having the right and exercising it are two different things. So when the time comes for them to exercise that's right. They should be ready. And therefore, special emphasis should be made on education and capacity building. So we have a real-life example in Madame President, a female president of a nation. And a first lady with a doctorate degree. Yes. So I think it would be appropriate. We've run out of time. We need to move on to the breakout sessions. But I think it would be only appropriate for us to allow the president to give us some closing remarks before we depart. Then our panel will depart, and Melissa will come back and let you know where everyone is going. Madame President. Well, the question that Maria Laura made is one that without repeating what I share in terms of the reflections of the general secretary of the ITU regarding the challenges we have of access for women and girls to technologies, the certain types of training, especially technical and scientific areas. I'd like to say that this question brings up an issue that's fundamental, which is access to opportunity, access to technologies, regardless of you being a woman. But of course, if you're a minority. And that minority can be economically defined, socially defined, racially defined, or just in terms of gender or sexual preference. What's important here is we should remember access. Access as an essential issue. And it's, of course, a challenge for the agenda in information and communication technologies. In that sense, I do believe that it is still a task of governments, essentially, a part of the public agenda to guarantee the democratization of access and use of communication and information technologies. Saying that you are not prepared in a certain sector to make use of those technologies is not a valid argument. Things should go the other way around. That's how I see it. First, you have to guarantee access to the different sectors of population for these technologies, especially internet and digital technologies. And then we can say in parallel that we will all start learning and teaching people how to use that. Because there's no doubt that access to technologies is also a great opportunity for humanity to truly face in a very short term the possible elimination of social gaps that for many years, for generations, have affected humanity as a whole. We know that access to information through the internet, through the communication technologies and digital technologies is a great opportunity to close the knowledge gaps to improve access to information, to have a better education, to share as well all our opinions. And that's essential. Since I do want to be fair, I would like to say that I have much hope for what is happening in the world. Of course, we're in a period of a transition. All transition periods in humanity are charged with traumatic processes, uncertainties, where we're all learning as we go, to use these digital tools as something we're just learning. But we can't think that because of that, internet is a threat. It's a hope for the development and the evolution of humanity. And it's a hope, especially to close the knowledge gaps and the social gaps that for many centuries have hit humanity. Thank you very much. As you can see, you have three of the most passionate, articulate world leaders wanting to take your voice and your ideas to the entire world. As we depart, please join me again in thanking them, and Melissa will come up and tell you about the rest of the day. Thank you.