Media today plays a central role in the lives of children, but they are more likely to be found online than in front of the television. Information and communication technology has virtually reached into all corners of people’s lives. Children are going online at younger ages and they are more likely to use their own personal devices. Research has shown that children mostly use their devices to visit social networking sites or use instant messaging, watch videos, search for schoolwork or play with other people. They are less likely to create content, read news or participate online.1 Information and communication technologies are shaping children’s lives in many ways, resulting in new opportunities for and risks to their well-being and rights. Consequently, we need to secure the exercise of the full range of children’s rights in the digital environment.
Children’s rights in the digital environment
Every child, as an individual rights-holder, should be able to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms online as well as offline. The Council of Europe adopted Guidelines for member states to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of the child in the digital environment with the aim to support a comprehensive, strategic approach in dealing with the complex world of the digital environment. The ‘digital environment’ is understood “as encompassing information and communication technologies (ICTs), including the Internet, mobile and associated technologies and devices, as well as digital networks, databases, content and services”.2
The primary obligation to promote and protect children’s rights in the digital environment lies with the state, but business enterprises, especially the ones providing services on a global scale, have to be engaged, too. This is of particular importance in the case of violation of children’s rights: children and their parents should have access to child-friendly avenues to submit complaints and seek remedies in both judicial and non-judicial procedures. To that end, children should be provided with gender and culture sensitive information about remedies available in a manner adapted to their age and maturity, and in a language which they can understand.
Where and how would you go first to place a complaint if the right to privacy of a child is violated in a social media network?
Access to digital environment
In 2017, children were consulted on the draft Council of Europe Guidelines for member states to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of the child in the digital environment in several European countries.3 At the consultations, children agreed that everyone should have access to the Internet without discrimination, and many of them mentioned that access should be available free of charge, anywhere or at least in public places. Internet access is important for children for various reasons: to learn, to play, to socialise and to express themselves. The Guidelines acknowledge that where children do not have access to the digital environment or where this access is limited as a result of poor connectivity, their ability to fully exercise their human rights may be affected. Therefore, access to the digital environment should be provided in schools and care settings and with specific measures in place for children in vulnerable situations, such as children with disabilities, children in alternative care, children deprived of liberty and children in the context of international migration. A child friendly version of the Recommendation on Guidelines to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of the child in the digital environment is also available.
Do children have access to the Internet in your school / institution / setting?
Are children allowed to use their smart devices at school in your country?
Right to freedom of expression and information
The digital environment has considerable potential to support the realisation of children’s right to freedom of expression, including to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds. The CRC states that children should have access to information and material from a diversity of national
and international sources, especially those aimed at the promotion of their social, spiritual and moral well-being and physical and mental health (Article 17). Children, as creators and distributors of information in the digital environment, should be made aware of how to exercise their right to freedom of expression while respecting the rights and dignity of others, including other children.
Can you think of examples of children practising freedom of expression online?
Where do children look for information when they want to know more about something?
Participation, right to engage in play and right to assembly and association
The digital environment provides distinctive opportunities for the rights of the child to participate, to engage in play, and the right to peaceful assembly and association, including through online communication, gaming, networking and entertainment. Interactive and play-based tools can stimulate skills such as creativity, teamwork and problem solving if they are appropriate to their evolving capacities and the needs of children in vulnerable situations. The right to play is naturally important for children, even if there are tensions with the time spent online and its consequences on physical and mental health. There are also concerns about safety, including the effect of violent games and the risks of meeting strangers online.
Participation in the digital environment includes the opportunity for children to take part effectively in local, national and global political debates. Online and offline activities can be combined and support each other, for example, in case of the #FridaysForFuture campaign that mobilised millions of children around the world via social media to demonstrate on the street and do other projects to raise attention to the climate crisis. Nevertheless, any monitoring or surveillance that interferes with the exercise of their rights to peaceful assembly and association should be prescribed by a law which is accessible, precise, clear and foreseeable, which pursues a legitimate aim, necessary in a democratic society and proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued, and allows for effective remedies.
Privacy and data protection
Children have a right to private and family life in the digital environment, and this includes the protection of their personal data and respect for the confidentiality of their correspondence and private communications. Threats to children’s privacy may arise from their own activities in the digital environment, as well as from the activities of others, including family, friends or strangers, for example, when parents share the photos or other information of their children online. Data collection and processing by public institutions, profiling of businesses and criminal activities such as hacking or identity theft can also pose a risk to the child’s privacy.
Children’s personal data should be processed fairly, lawfully, accurately and securely, for specific purposes and with the free, explicit, informed and unambiguous consent of the children and/or their parents. In order to be able to form the consent, children should have accessible, meaningful, child friendly and age-appropriate information about privacy tools, settings and remedies. In most countries, the age at which children are capable of consenting to the processing of personal data is defined by law; below that age, parental consent is required for the process of any personal data. The consent can be withdrawn anytime, and children and their parents should have access to their personal data and to have it corrected or erased.
What is the age of consent to the processing of personal data in your country?
Are you aware of the minimum age required to use social media networks?
Right to education
As the digital environment enables and enhances children’s access to quality education, it is vital that states promote online opportunities for formal, non-formal and informal education. Use of digital technology in the classroom can facilitate engagement between students and teachers, if appropriate technological infrastructure is provided. Digitalisation in education is unavoidable in order to adapt the curricula to the changing needs of society so that children can be provided with the knowledge and skills necessary for a successful life when they grow up.
Digital literacy education, including media and information literacies and digital citizenship education, ensures that children have the competence to engage in the digital environment wisely and the resilience to cope with its associated risks. It should enable children to understand and deal with potentially harmful content and behaviour and potential consequences of further dissemination of information about themselves or others. Digital literacy education should be included in the basic education curriculum from the earliest years and further education and awareness-raising initiatives and programmes should be developed for children, parents and educators working with children. Children should be aware of the victim services available to them, including helplines and hotlines.
Safer Internet Day is organised each February by the joint Insafe / INHOPE network, with the support of the European Commission, to promote the safe and positive use of digital technology, especially among children and young people. Celebrated on the second day of the second week of the second month, each year on Safer Internet Day millions of people unite to inspire positive changes online, to raise awareness of online safety issues, and participate in events and activities right across the globe.
The Safer Internet Day has grown beyond its traditional geographic zone and is now celebrated in over 170 countries worldwide. More information
Is there a helpline or hotline in your country that support children to deal with harmful contact, content and conduct?
Right to protection from violence
Children have the right to be protected from all forms of violence, exploitation and abuse in the digital environment as well, whereas any protective measures should take into consideration the best interests and evolving capacities of the child and not unduly restrict the exercise of other rights. Infants should be protected from premature exposure to the digital environment due to limited benefits with respect to their particular physical, psychological, social and stimulation needs. Effective age-verification is needed to ensure children are protected from products, services and content in the digital environment which are legally restricted with reference to specific ages.
There are a number of areas of concern for children’s healthy development and well-being, for example risks of harm from:
sexual exploitation and abuse, solicitation for sexual purposes (grooming), online recruitment of children for the commission of criminal offences, for participation in extremist political or religious movements or for trafficking purposes (contact risks)
the degrading and stereotyped portrayal and over-sexualisation of women and children in particular; the portrayal and glorification of violence and self-harm, in particular suicides; demeaning, discriminatory or racist expressions or apologia for such conduct; advertising, adult content (content risks)
bullying, stalking and other forms of harassment, non-consensual dissemination of sexual images, extortion, hate speech, hacking, gambling, illegal downloading or other intellectual property infringements, commercial exploitation (conduct risks)
excessive use, sleep deprivation and physical harm (health risks).
All of the above factors are capable of adversely affecting the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of a child.
What is cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying is bullying with the use of digital technologies. It can take place on social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms and mobile phones. It is repeated behaviour, aimed at scaring, angering or shaming those who are targeted. Examples include:
spreading lies about or posting embarrassing photos of someone on social media
sending hurtful messages or threats via messaging platforms
impersonating someone and sending mean messages to others on their behalf.
Face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying can often happen alongside each other. Cyberbullying, however, leaves a digital footprint – a record that can prove useful and provide evidence to help stop the abuse.
The digital environment poses specific challenges to parenting because parents face new issues on a regular basis as children and young people become more skilful at using the Internet, technology and social media. The principles of digital parenting are open communication with their children, including interest in the child’s digital activities, and if possible, regular involvement in those, and at the same, active protection of the child’s digital reputation and digital identity. Parents should also be equipped with information about the opportunities as well as the risks of the digital environment and have access to support services such as helplines and hotlines.
The Council of Europe developed special educational materials to assist parents on how to adequately approach the opportunities and challenges that digital environment offers. Parenting in the digital age - positive parenting strategies for different scenarios is an educational material aiming to develop understanding of the style of parenting, which works best for the families to ensure that children not only participate in the digital age, but actually thrive, while being protected from any risks posed by this new environment. Useful tools and helpful tips on how to protect children online could be find also in Parental guidance for the online protection of children from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse from the same series.
1 EU Kids Online (2014) EU Kids Online: findings, methods, recommendations. EU Kids Online, LSE, London, UK 2 Guidelines to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of the child in the digital environment, Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)7 of the
Committee of Ministers 3 It’s our world: children’s views on the protection of rights in the digital environment, Council of Europe, 2017
Where and how would you go first to place a complaint if the right to privacy of a child is violated in a social media network?