GENEVA: Making the digital world safe for children is an urgent priority, the United Nations said Friday, adding that those responsible for online harm must be held to account. UN rights chief Volker Turk said states had to force tech giants to embed child safety, and said child harm was the direct result of business practices and design choices. &quot;The digital world that connects children to learning, community, and creativity also exposes them to real risks to their safety, privacy, and well-being,&quot; Turk said in a statement. &quot;Online harms to kids&#39; safety, privacy, and wellbeing are not innate or inevitable; they result from design choices and business practices that undermine safety, including addictive design features, such as infinite scroll, autoplay, and persistent notifications from apps. &quot;Enhancing protection of children online is an urgent priority that we need to make sure not only gets done -- but that it gets done right,&quot; he added. The UN high commissioner for human rights called for tougher measures by countries and tech firms to make online platforms safe places for children, through better regulation, oversight, and accountability. &quot;Blanket social media bans are not a one-off panacea,&quot; Turk added. &quot;Simply limiting access to platforms that remain unsafe cannot stand as the endpoint in effectively protecting children.&quot; He called for platforms to be made safer by design and ensure that data is protected, while &quot;those responsible for harm can held to account&quot;. Micro-targeting of kidsTurk said simply focusing on age restrictions would leave unaltered the designs and algorithms that made the platforms unsafe in the first place. Tech giants must embed safety &quot;by design, instead of shifting the burden to parents and children&quot;, he said. The UN rights chief also said experience so far showed that bans could be easily circumvented and voiced concern that such bans could even end up pushing children to riskier, even less monitored platforms. His office produced a set of 10 guidelines entitled &quot;Getting Children&#39;s Safety Online Right&quot;. These included ensuring the maximum protection of children&#39;s data as a default setting, while the &quot;micro-targeting&quot; of children for commercial purposes, based on a digital record, &quot;should not be permitted&quot;. They said emerging concerns, such as restrictions on artificial intelligence chatbot use or addictive design features, may warrant age restrictions. Measures should be subject to independent oversight, with legal consequences that serve as deterrents, the guidelines said. There should also be access to remedies for children whose rights are violated. &quot;Whatever regulations are adopted, it is essential to avoid inadvertently causing further harm. For example, age verification done wrong can both fail at its goal and endanger the privacy of both kids and adults,&quot; said Turk.

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Volker Türk says states have to force tech giants to embed child safety, adding child harm is the direct result of business practices and design choices.

UN says protecting children online 'urgent priority'

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LAHORE: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has launched a new digital investment platform, InvestPak, enabling individuals and corporations to invest in government securities entirely online.&nbsp;The initiative forms part of the central bank&rsquo;s broader strategy to modernize Pakistan&rsquo;s financial infrastructure and accelerate the shift toward a cashless economy.&nbsp;According to the SBP, InvestPak digitizes the entire investment process for customers holding rupee accounts with banks, primary dealers (PDs), and microfinance banks (MFBs). Through the web portal, users can open Investor Portfolio of Securities (IPS) accounts, submit bids in primary auctions, and trade government securities in the secondary market without visiting a branch.&nbsp;&ldquo;All banks are mandated to facilitate customer registration on the portal,&rdquo; the SBP said in a circular. &ldquo;Microfinance banks are encouraged to extend the same facility to their clients. All financial institutions must ensure efficient onboarding and a seamless user experience.&rdquo;&nbsp;The system allows users to link and operate multiple rupee and IPS accounts across different financial institutions via a single login, with registration requests required to be processed within two working days.&nbsp;As of June 30, 2025, total investment in government securities stood at Rs46.566 trillion, with scheduled banks holding Rs38.7 trillion (83%) and corporates Rs7.856 trillion (17%). The SBP expects that opening access to individual investors through InvestPak will broaden participation, deepen the domestic debt market, and diversify the investor base.&nbsp;The launch comes as the central bank advances a comprehensive digitalization roadmap. In September, the National Assembly&rsquo;s finance committee was informed that all federal and provincial government payments are to be fully digitized by June 2026, including transactions of state-owned enterprises.&nbsp;SBP Governor Jameel Ahmad told the committee that the central bank is taking &ldquo;comprehensive steps to promote a secure, inclusive, and technology-driven payments ecosystem,&rdquo; noting that 88% of retail transactions in Pakistan are now digital&mdash;a major shift reflecting the rapid uptake of electronic payments.&nbsp;Pakistan&rsquo;s digital financial infrastructure currently supports 226 million bank accounts and 46 million Raast IDs. To strengthen consumer protection, the SBP has introduced a bank liability framework and a mandatory two-hour cooling-off period for digital transfers to mitigate fraud.&nbsp;The digital banking landscape is also expanding. Mashreq Bank recently became the first international bank to launch full digital operations in Pakistan, rolling out nationwide services in 12 months&mdash;significantly faster than the global average of five years. Five additional digital banks have received in-principle approval to operate.&nbsp;To promote innovation, the SBP has also backed new digital payment solutions. Governor Ahmad recently inaugurated the JazzCash Experience Lounge, featuring facial and palm biometrics, wearables, and QR-based payment technologies.&nbsp;The SBP said InvestPak represents a major step in expanding public access to investment opportunities in Pakistan&rsquo;s financial markets, calling it part of a long-term transition to &ldquo;a more transparent, inclusive, and digitally driven economy.&rdquo;

Economy

The State Bank of Pakistan launched InvestPak, a digital platform enabling individuals and corporates to invest in government securities online, aiming to modernize financial infrastructure, promote inclusion, and advance Pakistan’s cashless economy

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UN says protecting children online 'urgent priority'

Pakistan’s central bank launches InvestPak to expand digital access to government securities

UN says protecting children online 'urgent priority'