From Bangkok to Bogotá, a safer internet requires tech accountability
On Safer Internet Day, experience from around the world makes one thing clear: a safer digital world for children will not come about by chance.
On Safer Internet Day, organisations around the world are demanding that tech companies embed safety into digital products and services by design and default. As the fifth anniversary of UNCRC General comment No. 25 approaches, that demand has never been more urgent or more global.
From Southeast Asia to Latin America and Africa, the same pattern repeats as tech companies continue to deploy digital technologies at speed and scale without considering children’s distinct rights, needs, and vulnerabilities. Recent scandals, such as X’s Grok AI being used to generate child sexual abuse material are the predictable result of an industry that has long prioritised speed over safety.
In Thailand and Indonesia, which last year became the first Global Majority country to adopt age-appropriate design standards, 5Rights Head of International Affairs Marie-Ève Nadeau made the case that AI is not neutral but reflects the choices of those who built it, too often prioritizing profit over children’s safety. Expecting children to protect themselves in this context is not empowerment but abdication of responsibility.
In Colombia, 5Rights partnered with Red PaPaz to raise awareness on how AI systems exploit children’s data. Through deceptive design and opaque published terms, tech companies systematically harvest children’s data, threatening their privacy, development, and agency.
The consequences extend beyond privacy: at the UNESCO International Conference on Digital Platform Governance conference in South Africa, 5Rights Trustee Dorothy Gordon showed how manipulative design accelerates the spread of emotionally provocative content, including misinformation and disinformation, undermining information integrity at scale.
A safer digital world for children will not come about by chance. On Safer Internet Day, governments must reaffirm their commitment to hold tech companies accountable for respecting children’s rights and ensuring that safety by design and by default becomes the global standard.