A/HRC/40/28 disorders.4 States should take these age and gender dimensions into account when designing interventions and allocating budgets. 11. Where children lose their primary caregivers as a result of a terrorist act, the State is responsible for ensuring appropriate alternative care (Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 20). In line with the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, priority should be given to solutions that allow the child to remain in a family environment. 5 Placement in an institution is rarely in the best interests of the child, particularly following traumatic loss, and should be used only as a last resort and for the shortest possible time. 12. The right of children to be heard and have their views taken into account should be fully respected and, if required, facilitated with appropriate support (Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 12). Participating in decisions concerning their care, the support services available to them and any memorialization of the events can help child victims and witnesses regain a sense of control over their lives and contribute to their rehabilitation. 6 13. Where States are unable to meet their obligations to child victims, they should have access to international cooperation, including information exchanges and training of professionals working on preventive health care and the medical, psychological and functional treatment of children impacted by terrorism. 7 B. Freedom of expression, access to information and the right to privacy of child victims and witnesses 14. The psychological impact of terrorism on children is mediated by the responses of caregivers and trusted adults, as well as the duration of any exposure to media coverage, which may itself traumatize even children who are not direct victims or witnesses. Advice and support should be available to caregivers and professionals working with children in the aftermath of terrorist acts. Children should have opportunities to discuss their reactions in a supportive environment, which they should also be free to refuse. Some children may choose to exercise their freedoms of expression and association by forming or joining victim or advocacy groups. 15. The Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the right of children to access information from a diversity of national and international sources, while obliging States to encourage the development of appropriate guidelines to protect them from information and material injurious to their well-being (art. 17). Such guidelines may include television watersheds, monitored by an independent body, before which particularly distressing images of a terrorist act should not be broadcast. The provision cannot, however, be used to impose blanket restrictions on information which would also affect adults (see A/69/335). To ensure full respect for freedom of expression and avoid illegitimate censorship, the removal of online content should occur only following an order by a judicial authority, in accordance with due process and standards of legality, necessity, proportionality and legitimacy (see A/HRC/38/35). 16. Online hate speech often spikes following terrorist attacks. Children’s education should include modules on information literacy to enable them to identify bias and hate 4 5 6 7 4 See, for example, Ankur Saraiya, Amir Garakani and Stephen B. Billick, “Mental health approaches to child victims of acts of terrorism”, Psychiatric Quarterly, vol. 84, No. 1, March 2013; and Paramjit T. Joshi and Deborah A. O’Donnell, “Consequences of child exposure to war and terrorism”, Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, vol. 6, No. 4, December 2003. See also CRC/C/153. See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 12 (2009) on the right of the child to be heard, para. 125. See Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 23 (4), and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, art. 32.