PLDT, Smart and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) marked their shared milestones and discussed further areas of collaboration on 20 November on the occasion of World Children’s Day and the 35th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Emerging as the world’s highest-rated telecommunications company in the Global Child Forum Benchmark Report 2024, PLDT has been working with UNICEF since 2018 on the adoption of the Child Rights and Business Principles (CRBP) framework which integrates child-friendly policies and practices in the workplace, marketplace, and community operations.

In the Philippines in 2022, UNICEF, ECPAT International, and INTERPOL reported that 95 percent of children in the Philippines 12 to 17 years old are users of the internet.

While the internet and digital services enable children to socialize, do schoolwork, and access entertainment, among others, the study revealed various risks and harms that children encounter, including online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC).

“As PLDT and Smart continue to enable children’s Internet access and participation in the digital environment, we are keen to explore further areas of collaboration with UNICEF to foster industry-wide awareness on child rights and actively manage the impact of digital technology on children, as well as support our government in the continuing fight against OSAEC,” PLDT and Smart first vice president and chief sustainability officer Melissa Vergel de Dios said.

UNICEF Deputy Country Representative for Operations to the Philippines Edgar Donoso, for his part, said as UNICEF begins its new 9th Country Program for Children starting this year until 2028, PLDT and Smart have continued their strong support.

Kids’ rights encouraged

“Together, we will promote children’s rights to investors and supply chains, strengthen family-friendly workplace policies, and encourage responsible digital citizenship in communities and marketplaces.”

Under their multi-year partnership with UNICEF, PLDT and Smart have established pioneering business practices that promote child rights, including the enactment of child safeguarding policies, recognition of children as stakeholders, inclusion of child protection in their materiality assessment and governance framework, deployment of a child protection cybersecurity solution, and the conduct of impact assessment on child rights.