Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, the honorary chairperson of the Inner Wheel Clubs, stressed the necessity of adopting a national policy for facing the child abuse via the internet. She said that as the internet reached all homes and spread all over the world, all government and civilian efforts at the legal and educational levels must unite in face of different forms of child abuse.

During her annual meeting, held in the Air Force House, with members of Inner Wheel Clubs within the framework of celebrations of the Inner Wheel World Day under the slogan "Show your interest through friendship and service", Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak pointed out that this issue attracts attention of the Egyptian and Arab family due to our customs, traditions and particularity. She noted that studies for a new charter for the children internet rights will be conducted in this regard while encouraging providers of the internet service and workers in the Information Technology (IT) to create a system for classifying and purifying the electronic sites in order to help the Egyptian family to safeguard children and put mechanisms for investigating and judging those responsible for issues of violence against children and encouraging the Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to spread awareness in this issue among children and families.

The first lady expressed satisfaction at the annual meetings of the Inner Wheel Clubs which serve the whole society and national work in general. "We used to review the harvest of the past year, during these meetings, and draw courses and lines of our activity in the coming stage", she said.

Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak made it clear that the year of 2006 was full of activities, achievements and work for the sake of issues in the interest of the future of this nation including efforts and projects in the field of developing education, spreading the general culture, communication with youth, enhancing the culture of peace, and empowering women. She noted that many issues must be followed up including the Egyptian education initiative released in the World Economic Forum held in Sharm El Sheikh in May 2006 with the aim of establishing a high level technological structure in our schools and universities in order to provide new opportunities for research and knowledge for our students.

Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak said that many achievements were realized in the field of promoting the role of women in the development process and peace activities on the national, regional and international levels through activities of the National Council for Women, Arab Women Organization and Suzanne Mubarak International Women for Peace Movement. She said that the proposed constitutional amendments by President Mubarak will allow reform of the election system thus guaranteeing more opportunities for women for representation in the elected parliamentary councils. Discussions are under way on appointing women as judges, she said, adding this was part of efforts to grant women equal citizenship rights.

In spite of the importance of said efforts and projects as well as their achievements, we still have hopes which we seek to realize in future, Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak said. I want to focus on a very vital and important issue which represents a great challenge for the whole international community, i.e. child abuse, she added, referring to the study released by the UN in 2006 on different forms of violence against children on the world level inside families, schools, alternative social care organizations and work places. Said violence includes different forms such as physical punishment and psychological violence as well as some traditional practices such as early marriage, forced marriage, female circumcision and forcing children to work in bad circumstances and dangerous jobs in addition to children abduction, trafficking and sexual abuse.

Human trafficking for sexual abuse topped the agenda of Suzanne Mubarak International Women for Peace Movement meetings in January 2006, Mrs. Mubarak said, noting the meeting was held in Athens. It has become billion dollar-worth business, she said.

Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak stated that a meeting was held in Paris in mid-January 2007 with the presence of a group of first ladies and senior officials in many countries and organizations for discussing said phenomenon and means of its confrontation on both national and international levels. She noted that the meeting has concentrated on the children sexual abuse and role of internet and advanced communication means in increasing said danger where all participants have agreed on the importance of facing and treating said phenomenon. She referred to the reports discussed during this meeting on the tragic dimensions of said criminal activity which spread all over the world noting that circumstances of poverty and ignorance help those offenders to exploit millions of children through using the ICT great development and internet. There are nearly 100.000 e-sites for said suspicious trade based on the exploitation of children by the organized crime networks, she added.

Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak said that Egypt does not suffer from such tragic dimensions witnessed by other countries, but all parties must cooperate for providing the necessary protection for our children in face of said dangerous phenomenon. She stressed that state is responsible for the children protection but this matter is in a dire need of a supportive international environment in order to make the national polices success, and therefore the Paris conference represented a call for the international solidarity in face of said threats and dangers against our children.

Participants in the conference called for forming an international coalition gathering all concerned personnel on the world level for the sake of establishing and developing different mechanisms for monitoring the use of children for the internet while seeking help of the credit cards centers in following users of suspicious sites on the internet. The statement issued by the conference stressed the role of media in searching for missed children and spreading awareness of participation with the NGOs. In Egypt, we were fully aware of the major issues to be discussed due to spread of the internet and increase in the flow of information topped by the protection of children and respect of privacy of the Egyptian family and culture, traditions and ethics of the Egyptian society, Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak said. "We believe that the real protection is not through confiscation or imposition of control, but it is an issue of choice coming from the culture of the user", she added.

Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak noted that in spite of the importance of mechanisms and legislations to realize our targets as they play a key role in controlling the social practices and behaviors, but implementation of said legislations and awareness of the Egyptian families will help in providing the solution. She stressed the role of families in protecting children and called for spreading educational programs for guiding parents and families in general towards the positive and constructive means in protecting children against said dangers through dialogue and follow up of their relations with their friends, colleagues and others as well as paying attention to their problems. She noted that involvement in the public work requires strenuous efforts for the sake of development and construction and the major challenge in face of our society is how to benefit from the advanced technology and preserve values of the Egyptian society at the same time.