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
In focus
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Child online safety at the centre of discussions in Canada
5Rights addressed Canada’s legislative efforts on children’s digital safety at a Toronto conference, emphasising global best practices and the importance of privacy and safety by design.
Supporting families globally: our work with The Parents’ Network
5Rights is partnering with Archewell’s Parents’ Network to work with families of children severely impacted by online harms to call for online spaces to be designed with the needs and rights of children in mind.
5Rights challenges Meta’s inaction on AI-generated CSAM
Despite clear evidence from UK Police indicating the presence of Instagram accounts with over 150,000 followers sharing real and AI-generated Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), Meta has failed to take decisive action. We have issued a legal letter demanding urgent intervention.
Celebrating 3 years of the Age-Appropriate Design Code
Monday 2 September 2024 marks the third anniversary of the UK’s Age Appropriate Design Code. For three years, the Code has helped deliver protections for children online by requiring tech companies to give them a high level…