5Rights

5Rights takes the existing rights of children and young people (under 18), and articulates them for the digital world. We believe that they should be supported to access digital technologies creatively, knowledgeably and fearlessly.

UNCRC General Comment: Expert consultation meeting, London, 7-8 October 2019

October 2019

On Monday, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and 5Rights Foundation, Professor Sonia Livingstone OBE, Dr Amanda Third, and Gerison Lansdown will welcome over 50 experts on children’s rights from around the globe. The purpose of the two-day meeting is to discuss the proposed General Comment on children’s rights in the digital environment.

We look forward to many thoughtful and engaging discussions on how the Convention can be updated for 21st century, digital children around the world.

Find out more about 5Rights' work on the General Comment

5Rights joins Peace Day pledge against Cyber Violence

September 2019

5Rights Foundation is proud to support Peace One Day and the campaign to reduce Cyber Violence in all its forms.

Baroness Beeban Kidron, Founder and Chair, 5Rights Foundation, said: “Children and young people cannot navigate the digital world creatively and fearlessly if they are battling against hate speech, sexual abuse, exploitation, and bullying online. We support Peace One Day in its campaign to tackle cyber violence.”

Let's make it easy for online services to protect children's data

August 2019

“A generation of children has become accustomed to clicking ‘accept’ and surrendering their privacy. Imagine if clicking ‘accept’ meant just the opposite.”

5Rights on how the enormous potential of the Age Appropriate Design Code can be realised.

Read our blog

US Federal Trade Commission to review COPPA Rule

August 2019

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking comment and evidence on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule). The COPPA Rule, which first went into effect in 2000, is primarily intended to limit the collection and processing of children’s (under 13) data where verifiable parental consent has not been obtained. However, its rules and definitions have shaped children’s experience of the digital environment far more broadly for nearly two decades.

Comments are invited on all major provisions of the COPPA Rule and must be received on or before 23rd October 2019.

5Rights responds to the Online Harms White Paper

July 2019

5Rights welcomes the importance that the White Paper ascribes to promoting the welfare of children and young people in particular, and we are pleased to see proposals that would hold companies to account for how effectively they uphold their published rules. However, we express concern that the more ‘everyday’ harms faced by children online are not given sufficient attention in the White Paper, and that in failing to take a truly risk-based approach, the proposals may fall short of driving a culture of safety-by-design.

Read our response

5Rights responds to the draft Age Appropriate Design Code

May 2019

5Rights Foundation has submitted its response to the Information Commissioner’s consultation on the draft Age Appropriate Design Code.

The draft Code breaks new ground in setting out the specific protections that children merit in relation to their personal data, and it successfully challenges the status quo in which children’s presence is not accounted for by the online services they use.

We congratulate the Information Commissioner’s Office for its work to date and look forward to welcoming the final version of the Code when it enters into force.

Read our response

The Age Appropriate Design Code: “A new deal between children and the tech sector”

April 2019

The Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham CBE, has now launched a draft of the Age Appropriate Design Code for consultation. The consultation is open until Friday 31st May.

The Age Appropriate Design Code is the first of its kind anywhere in the world and sets out the specific protections that children require for their data. It will redress the balance between the needs and safety of children and the commercial interests of online services.

Developed through the workshops we run with kids, our new children's booklet explains how the Information Commissioner’s Age Appropriate Design Code can support them online. It illustrates how the Code can make it easy for them to have more control of their data, and what online services must do to make themselves child-friendly.

At 5Rights, we work to support children and young people as they explore, play, learn and grow in the digital environment. We do this by:

giving children a voice to articulate their needs and to meaningfully shape their digital environment.
collaborating with designers, computer scientists, child development experts, user experience engineers, and academics to develop prototypes that show how the digital environment can be redesigned in children’s ‘best interests’.
publishing research to build and disseminate evidence on how best to meet children’s development needs online.
sharing knowledge to ensure that those with responsibility for children, including teachers, parents, social workers and policy-makers make informed decisions.
developing a digital literacy framework that tackles questions of motivation, citizenship and digital engagement, alongside discussions of ‘21st century’ skills necessary to flourish in the digital environment.
building a consensus on the need for a global governance structure that would establish universal standards of age-appropriate design online.

The 5Rights Framework articulates the rights and commonly held principles enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC) for the digital world. Rights that protect them from commercial exploitation, offer the highest standards in wellbeing and education. Rights that protect them from violence and harm, and give them privacy.

The demand to create a better digital environment for young people is often synonymous with a call to curtail access. 5Rights does not support this view. We welcome the rapid growth of the digital environment but work to ensure that it meets the needs of young people.