| APrIGF 2026 Session Proposal Submission Form | |||||||||||||
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| Part 1 - Lead Organizer | |||||||||||||
| Contact Person | |||||||||||||
| Dr. Velislava Hillman | |||||||||||||
| Organization / Affiliation (Please state "Individual" if appropriate) * | |||||||||||||
| EDDS Institute | |||||||||||||
| Designation | |||||||||||||
| Founder/Director | |||||||||||||
| Gender | |||||||||||||
| Female | |||||||||||||
| Economy of Residence | |||||||||||||
| United Kingdom | |||||||||||||
| Stakeholder Group | |||||||||||||
| Technical Community | |||||||||||||
| List Your Organizing Partners (if any) | |||||||||||||
| Mr Thy Try - Open Development Cambodia (Cambodia), try@opendevcam.net Ms Lang Thi Nhat - LeaderInYou (Vietnam), nhat.lang@leaderinyou.vn Ms Elisha Heppner - APNIC (Australia), ellisha.heppner@apnic.foundation Ms Kelsey Hallahan - Digital Future Aotearoa (New Zealand), kelsey@digitalfutureaotearoa.nz Ms Dhanyashri Kamalakannan - The Pranava Institute (India) dhanyashri@pranavainstitute.com Mr Syed Kazi - Council for Social and Digital Development (India) syedskazi@gmail.com |
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| Part 2 - Session Proposal | |||||||||||||
| Session Title | |||||||||||||
| Beyond Access: Who Keeps Children Safe Online Once They are Connected? | |||||||||||||
| Thematic Track of Your Session | |||||||||||||
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| Session Format | |||||||||||||
| Workshop (60 minutes) | |||||||||||||
| Where do you plan to organize your session? | |||||||||||||
| Hybrid (with onsite moderator and speakers both online and offline, with online moderator for questions and comments from remote participants) | |||||||||||||
| Specific Issues for Discussion | |||||||||||||
| The overarching question of the session is: Who helps children navigate digital life once they are connected? Governments cannot be present in every community. Many parents lack the confidence or digital skills to guide children online. Schools are often overstretched, particularly in rural and underserved areas. Simultaneously, children encounter misinformation, scams, harmful content, online exploitation and advanced technologies, including AI. Consequently, connectivity often expands faster than communities’ capacity to use the Internet safely and meaningfully. This session explores the role of *trusted community institutions* and *local support networks* as a missing layer between connectivity and child online safety. While Internet governance discussions often focus on infrastructure, platforms and regulation, far less attention is given to the local institutions that help communities navigate digital life in practice. Drawing on experiences from Cambodia, Vietnam, India and lessons from community-based digital participation, digital literacy and online safety initiatives across the wider Asia-Pacific region, participants will discuss how libraries, community learning centres and other locally embedded institutions can support safe and meaningful digital participation. Using the Prayuters Library initiative in Cambodia as a starting point, the session will examine a broader Internet governance challenge -whether trusted community institutions should be recognised as part of the infrastructure required for meaningful connectivity and digital resilience. Plus: -practical experiences and policy implications, including how community institutions can support digital literacy, online safety and resilience to misinformation; -how they can complement the roles of governments, schools, families and platforms; -conditions needed to sustain and scale successful community-based approaches; -identify practical recommendations for utilising trusted community institutions. |
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| Describe the Relevance of Your Session to APrIGF | |||||||||||||
| We contribute to the Universal and Meaningful Connectivity and Digital Resilience and Building of Trust by addressing a gap, often overlooked in Internet governance discussions: the role of trusted community institutions in supporting safe and meaningful digital participation. Meaningful connectivity requires more than infrastructure alone. Children and families also need support systems and trusted environments. Without these supports, increased connectivity does not automatically translate into greater inclusion, empowerment or resilience. We focus on co-designing systems with communities to strengthen resilience in the face of online harms, misinformation, exploitation and advancing technologies. Instead of focusing solely on regulatory or technical responses, the workshop highlights practically the role of locally embedded institutions, like libraries, community learning centres and other trusted community institutions, to build trust and digital literacy. The session brings a practical Southeast Asian perspective to these challenges. Drawing on experiences from Cambodia, Vietnam, India and the wider Asia-Pacific, participants will examine approaches that are locally led, community-based and adaptable to different social, economic and cultural contexts. This reflects APrIGF’s commitment to sharing regional experiences and promoting multistakeholder solutions to Internet governance challenges. Expected outcomes include: -Increased recognition of trusted community institutions as an important component of meaningful connectivity and digital resilience strategies -Exchange of practical lessons and experiences from Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific on supporting children and families in digital environments -Identify policy and partnership opportunities to strengthen community-based approaches to digital literacy and online safety -Recommendations for integrating trusted community institutions into broader Internet governance and digital development discussions. |
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| Methodology / Agenda (Please add rows by clicking "+" on the right) | |||||||||||||
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| Moderators & Speakers Info (Please complete where possible) - (Required) | |||||||||||||
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| Please explain the rationale for choosing each of the above contributors to the session. | |||||||||||||
| The speakers have been selected to reflect the session's central focus on **communities as the foundation of meaningful and inclusive AI governance**. Together we all bring complementary experience from community learning, digital inclusion, libraries, civil society, internet governance and local capacity building across Cambodia, India, Vietnam, New Zealand and Australia. Their work demonstrates how trusted community institutions - from libraries and Lifelong Learning Centres to grassroots organisations and regional networks - can help ensure that AI supports - and not undermines - equitable and safe access to learning, participation and digital rights. This diversity of perspectives reflects the IGF's multistakeholder model at its core while we also aim to bring the discussion forward with realistic and practical experiences from communities across Southeast Asia/Asia-Pacific. | |||||||||||||
| If you need assistance to find a suitable speaker to contribute to your session, or an onsite facilitator for your online-only session, please specify your request with details of what you are looking for. | |||||||||||||
| Not identified for now. | |||||||||||||
| Has AI been used to develop this proposal? | |||||||||||||
| No | |||||||||||||
| Please declare if you have any potential conflict of interest with the Program Committee 2026. | |||||||||||||
| No | |||||||||||||
| Are you or other session contributors planning to apply for the APrIGF Fellowship Program 2026? | |||||||||||||
| No | |||||||||||||
| Upon evaluation by the Program Committee, your session proposal may only be selected under the condition that you will accept the suggestion of merging with another proposal with similar topics. Please state your preference below: | |||||||||||||
| Yes, I am willing to work with another session proposer on a suggested merger. | |||||||||||||
| APrIGF offers live transcripts in English for all sessions. Do you need any disability related requirements for your session? APrIGF makes every effort to be a fully inclusive and accessible event, and will do the best to fulfill your needs. | |||||||||||||
| no. | |||||||||||||
| Number of Attendees (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||||
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| Gender Balance in Moderators/Speakers (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||||
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| How were gender perspectives, equality, inclusion or empowerment discussed? Please provide details and context. | |||||||||||||
| Gender perspectives, equality, inclusion and empowerment were considered in the overall design of the session and the composition of the panel. Speakers were selected primarily for their expertise and leadership in community learning, digital inclusion and internet governance. we equally sought to balance diversity across gender, geography and stakeholder groups. This resulted in a panel with strong representation of women leaders from across the Asia-Pacific which potentially reflects the expertise and leadership already present in these fields. Our discussion and awareness has been to be sure that we have inclusive perspectives especially when exploring how community-led approaches can ensure that AI and digital transformation benefit diverse communities and that a broad range of voices are represented in shaping digital futures. | |||||||||||||
| Consent | |||||||||||||
 I agree that my data can be submitted to forms.for.asia and processed by APrIGF organizers for the program selection of APrIGF 2026. |
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