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Children’s Rights

The UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was first introduced over 30 years ago, setting out the conditions in which a child (under 18) might flourish. Ithe most widely-ratified human rights treaty in history, it applies online as it does offline and must be implemented and enforced.

Young people have long-established rights and protections offline and a life mediated by technology must be held to the same standards. Our digital world is a purpose-built environment, shaped through conscious choices. We must choose to build a digital world that supports and empowers young people and upholds their rights.

Children’s rights are balanced and multifaceted, entitling them protections but also to autonomy over their own lives and development, and to participation in society more broadly. In an interconnected world, if children and young people’s rights are not upheld in one environment, they are denuded in all environments.

On 2 March 2021, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted General comment No. 25 setting out how all children’s rights as defined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) apply in the digital environment. It is now incumbent upon all 196 signatories to the UNCRC to transpose the prescriptions of the General comment into all existing and future relevant policy and legislation, including by:

  • Taking proactive measures to prevent exclusion and discrimination, including discrimination that can arise when automated processes that result in information filtering, profiling or decision-making are based on biased, partial or unfairly obtained data concerning a child (Para. 9-11, in ref. to UNCRC Art. 2).
  • Ensuring that in all in all actions regarding the provision, regulation, design, management and use of the digital environment, the best interests of every child is a primary consideration; States should ensure transparency in the assessment of the best interests of the child and the criteria that have been applied (Para. 12-13, in ref. to UNCRC Art. 3). 
  • Taking all appropriate measures to protect children from content, contact, conduct and contract risks, including violent and sexual content, cyberaggression and harassment, gambling, exploitation and abuse, including sexual exploitation and abuse, and the promotion of or incitement to suicide or life-threatening activities, including by criminals or armed groups designated as terrorist or violent extremist. (Para. 14-15, in ref. to UNCRC Art. 6). 
  • Involving children and taking their views and needs into account when developing laws and policies that impact children’s rights in the digital environment. Companies should similarly take children’s views into consideration from the development stage of digital products and services (Para. 17, in ref. to UNCRC Art. 12).
  • Requiring digital service providers to offer or make available services to children appropriate for their evolving capacities (Para. 19-21, in ref. to UNCRC Art. 5).
  • Reviewing, adopting and updating national legislation in line with the UNCRC, and mandating the use of child rights impact assessments to embed children’s rights into legislation, budgetary allocations and other administrative decisions relating to the digital environment (Para. 23, in ref. to UNCRC Art.4).
  • Requiring businesses to undertake child rights due diligence, in particular child rights impact assessments,  and holding them accountable for preventing their networks or services from being misused for purposes that threaten children’s safety and well-being. (Para. 36-38, in ref to UNCRC Art. 4).
  • Taking appropriate steps to prevent, monitor, investigate and punish child rights abuses by businesses.  (Para. 38, in ref.to UNCRC Art. 4).
  • Requiring that businesses adhere to the highest standards of ethics privacy and safety in relation to the design, engineering, development, operation, distribution and marketing of their products and services (Para 39 in ref. to UNCRC Art. 4); and that they comply with relevant guidelines, standards and codes and enforce lawful, necessary and proportionate content moderation rules (Para. 56, in ref. to UNCRC Art. 4).
  • Prohibiting by law the profiling or targeting of children of any age for commercial purposes on the basis of a digital record of their actual or inferred characteristics, including group or collective data, targeting by association or affinity profiling (Para. 42 in ref. to UNCRC Art. 4).
  • Ensuring that automated systems or information filtering systems are not used to affect or influence children’s behaviour or emotions or to limit their opportunities or development. (Para. 62 in ref. to UNCRC Art. 13-14).
  • Taking legislative and other measures to ensure that children’s privacy is respected and protected by all organisations and in all environments that process their data. Such legislation should include strong safeguards, transparency, independent oversight and access to remedy. States should require the integration of privacy-by- design into digital products and services that affect children. (Para. 70 in ref. to UNCRC Art.16).
  • Regulating against known harms. Measures may also be needed to prevent unhealthy engagement in digital games or social media, such as regulating against digital design that undermines children’s development and rights. (Para. 96, in ref. to UNCRC Art. 24).
  • Introducing or using data protection, privacy-by-design, safety-by-design and other regulatory measures to ensure that businesses do not target children using techniques designed to prioritise commercial interests over those of the child. Examples of such techniques are opaque or misleading advertising or highly persuasive or gambling-like design features (Para. 110, in ref. to UNCRC Art. 31).   

The adoption of the General comment No. 25 was the culmination of three years of work during which 5Rights Foundation supported the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child by chairing the drafting Steering Group and managing consultations. 40 nation states, hundreds of organisations, 709 children and 50 dedicated experts from 28 countries contributed to the process.