United Kingdom
5Rights leads innovation in digital policy, ensuring children and young people in the UK feel safe and empowered online.
Overview
The UK, where 5Rights was founded, has pioneered digital regulation for children. It introduced the world’s first enforceable Age Appropriate Design Code in 2020, followed by the Online Safety Act in 2023, making it a key testing ground for policy innovation and implementation.
“A perfect digital world should be focused on online safety of the content. Every child should be informed about the type of content before they access it”
William, 15
Children’s experiences
Almost all 3-17-year-olds go online in the UK, mostly to watch videos, play video games, send messages to their friends and stay connected via social media. Nearly half of 11-year-olds who go online have a social media profile, despite a minimum age requirement of 13 for most social media sites. While watching videos, children are exposed to many advertisements and encouraged to spend cash as they are playing online games. Grooming cases and self-generated child sexual imagery are also on the rise, especially for younger children. 5Rights works hard to advocate that digital spaces likely to be accessed by children provide them with content and experiences appropriate to their age and evolving capacities.
Our work in the UK
5Rights works closely with policy makers and regulators and leads the work of the Children’s Coalition for Online Safety. We also partner with Bereaved Families for Online Safety to keep children’s online safety at the forefront of the political agenda. In partnership with the London School of Economics, 5Rights launched the Digital Futures for Children centre, dedicated to researching a rights-respecting digital world for children.
As part of our joint work with the Digital Futures for Children Centre, we are launching the Better EdTech Futures for Children project, which brings together young people across the UK to explore how technology and AI are shaping the classroom and to advocate for a more rights-respecting digital learning environment.
In focus
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Ban social media, or make it safer? Government must put responsibility back onto tech platforms as consultation ends
As the UK Government’s consultation on Children’s Digital Wellbeing closes, 5Rights has called on ministers to respond to growing public concern about children’s online experiences with practical, enforceable measures that put safety and wellbeing first.
Children’s groups call on UK Government to tackle root causes of online harm
As the UK Government prepares to conclude a major consultation into children’s digital wellbeing, 25 of the UK’s leading children’s organisations have released a joint statement warning that the UK is failing to tackle the root causes of online harm and calling for decisive action that delivers meaningful change for children.
Ofcom intervention pushes Snap, Meta and Roblox to commit to child safety measures but evidence shows more is needed
New commitments from large tech companies show that regulatory pressure can drive change but children’s exposure to harmful design practices and content remains stubbornly unchanged.
New polling finds the public want platforms proven safe before use – not just banned
84% of the UK public are convinced that requiring companies to prove their products are designed to be safe before use would keep everyone safe on social media platforms. Only 2% think platforms are currently doing a good job of reducing the risk of harm to users.
