Awareness Raising and Education

We take UNICEF's Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Children's Rights and Business Principles seriously. With regard to the CRC in particular, which codifies children's right to survival and development, we ensure that children have access to education and do not face a digital divide. Regarding Children's Rights and Business Principles, we are committed to ensuring that KDDI's services come with safety measures that respect and promote children's rights.
We offer safe and affordable services to young people and run awareness campaigns. We are committed to protecting children's rights as we endeavor to create a society where children can enjoy mobile and internet connectivity.

At elementary schools, junior high schools and high schools across Japan, KDDI's certified lecturers teach children rules and manners to abide by when using a smartphone or mobile phone and go over teachable examples of trouble and incidents related to smartphones, mobile phones, and the internet. The classes are designed to enable children to use their own judgment and thereby avoid risks. Courses are held onsite at schools as well as online. Since its launch in fiscal 2005, a total of 42,000 classes have been held with over 7,400,000 attendees. There is a wide variety of human rights-related risks posed by the internet, and people need to be careful not to spread misinformation or write hurtful comments on social media, post identifying information, or too easily trust people met online.These topics are covered by the lectures, and we are working to enable children to safely use information technology while protecting their human rights.

Japan is struck by major natural disasters almost every year, and education for disaster risk reduction (DRR) is becoming increasingly important in schools. We have been holding workshop-style classes named Raise DRR Literacy with Your Smartphone for high school students since fiscal 2017 to teach them how to effectively use ICTs as a lifeline in the event of a disaster. A social media network was specially created for learning how to share information during the classes. In total, these workshops have been held at 68 schools with over 3,000 participants to date.

The percentage of accidents involving pedestrians and bicycles is on the rise (according to the National Police Agency's Traffic Bureau), and accidents caused by "smartphone while riding a bicycle" and the high cost of compensation for such accidents have become major social issues. At KDDI, in response to this social issue, we aim to solve it from two perspectives: "safe use of bicycles" and "peace of mind in using bicycles." Since September 2017, with the aim of realizing a society where bicycles can be used safely and securely, the KDDI Group has been working on initiatives to prevent the use of smartphones while riding bicycles.
Since March 2019, we have produced a online lesson kit for high school students to prevent smartphone while riding a bicycle, and have been providing it free of charge to school teachers. School teachers themselves can easily conduct the lessons, and students can think about the dangers and problems of the social issue of "smartphone while biking" while experiencing it in real life.

We are organizing smartphone disassembly classes for children with the aim of promoting the key issues of "development of a recycling-oriented society" as outlined in the environmental conservation plan "KDDI Green Plan 2030."
In the classroom, students can learn about KDDI's material recycling initiatives while experiencing a portion of smartphone disassembly. Additionally, by learning about this initiative, they also have an opportunity to gain knowledge about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as environmental, human rights issues, and respect for diversity.