IGF-UA 2018 (9th Ukrainian Internet Governance Forum) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

The 9th Ukrainian Internet Governance Forum (IGF-UA 2018) met at UBI HALL in Kyiv on 28 September 2018, opening with a plenary on 'Freedom and Security on the Internet' and running parallel sections on cybersecurity, media, child safety, intellectual property and digital rights.
Child online protection had its own dedicated section, and the harmonisation of Ukrainian law with the EU's electronic-communications reform was on the table; the closing session took stock of how the global internet governance system is evolving.
A day earlier the first full Youth IGF-UA drew more than 110 participants to the same venue — the year Ukraine's unbroken national IGF series, running since 2010, reached the next generation.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on IGF-UA 2018 (9th Ukrainian Internet Governance Forum) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

Conference at a Glance (from official records)

Item	Detail
Official name	IGF-UA 2018 (9th Ukrainian Internet Governance Forum)
Edition	9th edition (the series began in Kyiv in September 2010)
Dates	28 September 2018
Venue	UBI HALL, 8 Dorohozhytska Street, Kyiv, Ukraine
Theme	Regional governance themes
Host	Internet Association of Ukraine (InAU), Commission on Science and IT of the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (USPP), RIPE NCC, Internews-Ukraine, Hostmaster Ltd and partners

(See the source list at the end of this article.)

Discussion Digest — from the Session Records

Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.

1. Balancing Freedom and Security — The Opening Plenary Theme

Sessions: Plenary 'Freedom and Security on the Internet' (28 September, 9:30)

How to reconcile freedom of expression with cybersecurity and protection from online threats framed the whole forum, set out in the opening plenary [1][2]
Parallel sections covered cybersecurity and media, internet-market risks and digital-rights protection, and a closing session on 'the evolution of the internet governance system' reviewed global IG trends [1][2]

2. Child Online Safety — A Dedicated Section Born of a Civil-Society Proposal

Sessions: Section 'Child Online: Safety and Protection' (12:10–13:20)

The organising committee adopted by consensus a proposal from the NGO Better Internet Centre to create a dedicated section on children's online safety [3]
Grounded in the UN Human Rights Council principle that the same rights people have offline must be protected online, the section featured research including monitoring of educational institutions' websites [3]

3. Intellectual Property and the EU's Electronic-Communications Reform

Sessions: Parallel sections on IP protection and European electronic-communications reform

Parallel sections addressed online intellectual-property protection and how Ukrainian law should respond to the EU's electronic-communications regulatory reform [1]
DNS issues and the risks of the modern internet market were also on the agenda, tracing the direction of Ukraine's digital policy as it moved closer to the EU [1]

4. Institutionalising Youth Participation — The First Youth IGF-UA

Sessions: Youth IGF-UA (27 September 2018, UBI HALL)

The day before the main forum, the first full Youth IGF-UA gathered more than 110 participants at the same venue, moderated by Valeriya Dubytska (iNGO European Media Platform) [4]
Young people themselves debated cyberthreats, social networks and child safety, blockchain, digital security for youth and net neutrality — the starting point of a youth series held every year since [4]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What does this forum actually decide?

A. Nothing is 'decided' — it is Ukraine's national version of the UN's multistakeholder dialogue forum, where government, business and civil society talk as equals. Held annually since 2010, 2018 was the 9th edition.

Q. What made this year distinctive?

A. Two things: child online safety got its own section thanks to an NGO proposal, and the first full Youth IGF-UA drew over 110 participants the day before, institutionalising youth participation.

Q. Why should outsiders care?

A. The co-hosting model — industry association, NGOs and government sustaining a national IGF every year — is a reference point for other countries, and topics like child protection and EU regulatory alignment are universal.

What Is Ukraine IGF? (for first-time readers)

Ukraine IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.

Why It Matters to You

What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2018 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.