Problem
Where innovators and policymakers have sought to support children and young people online, they have focused narrowly on ‘harm’, rather than on promoting their wider flourishing.
This ignores the fact that children’s and young people’s rights are balanced and multifaceted, entitling them to both 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.
The enormous potential of digital technology will only be realised when it is proactively directed towards the promotion of children and young people’s rights, rather than retroactively adapted or deployed merely to protect their safety.
Solution
Children and young people’s rights must be embedded and upheld in the digital environment, by design and default.
What is 5Rights doing?