Children's rights in the digital environment

Children's rights in the digital environment

Digital technologies are reshaping childhood. From education and social interaction to civic engagement and entertainment, the digital environment offers children tremendous opportunities—including better access to information, education and health tools, opportunities for civic participation, new environments for play and social interaction, and improved accessibility for children with disabilities. However, widespread uptake of digital technologies also encompasses a broad spectrum of human rights risks and harms to which children can be particularly vulnerable. OHCHR works to ensure that children's rights are respected, protected, and fulfilled in the digital environment.

Why it matters

Children represent nearly one-third of all internet users globally. Many access digital platforms, social media, and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence from increasingly young ages. While digital tools can empower children, their rights in these spaces are often overlooked, ignored, or misunderstood—even though children’s rights apply in the digital world just as they do offline.

The full potential of digital technologies for children can only be realized if risks of harm are identified, prevented, and mitigated. Children face serious risks online, including exploitation and abuse, privacy violations, manipulative design and algorithms, cyberbullying, misinformation, data misuse, and exclusion from digital access. Risks that affect adults can be magnified for children, while some harms—such as child sexual exploitation and abuse—target children specifically. UN Human Rights experts have emphasized that digital technologies can negatively impact fundamental rights, including children's rights to education, privacy, safety, and protection from exploitation.

Too often, the responsibility for navigating these harms is placed disproportionately on children and their families, rather than on the companies and governments that shape digital spaces. And as innovation often outpaces safeguards, it is essential to continuously account for harms associated with emerging digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence.

Legal framework

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and General Comment No. 25 (2021) provide a clear framework for upholding children’s rights in the digital environment, including their rights to privacy, safety, participation, non-discrimination, education, play, and protection from exploitation.

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the Children’s Rights and Business Principles (CRBPs) establish the responsibilities of companies in respecting and supporting children's rights. Under these frameworks, companies that design, develop, and deploy digital technologies have the responsibility to proactively identify, prevent, and mitigate adverse impacts on children's rights. The CRBPs specifically guide companies on how to approach children's rights and integrate them into their operations in digital contexts. For more information, see the OHCHR-UNICEF briefing "Taking a Child Rights-Based Approach to Implementing the UNGPs in the Digital Environment"

Global commitment

In September 2024, UN member states adopted the Global Digital Compact, committing to "strengthen legal and policy frameworks to protect the rights of the child in the digital space" and to "prioritize the development and implementation of national online child safety policies and standards" by 2030, in compliance with international human rights law.

Partnership initiatives

"Our Digital World, Our Say" is an initiative coordinated by the UN Human Rights Office in partnership with 5Rights Foundation and Digital Futures for Children centre at LSE, in collaboration with the Child Rights Connect global civil society network. Through focus groups with children aged up to 18 across multiple regions, the initiative gathers children's views and recommendations on their rights in the digital world. This participatory project will culminate in a report to be published in 2026.

Under this partnership, an updated child- and youth-friendly summary of General Comment No. 25 has been co-created by 5Rights Foundation, Digital Futures for Children at LSE, and the UN Human Rights Office. This resource is intended as a tool for children and young people to understand and speak up about their rights in the digital world. English | Français | Español

Ahead of the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, OHCHR and partner organizations consulted children and young people around the world on their views on AI. The resulting report, Me & AI, brings together the views of more than 1,000 children, aged 10–17 and from 49 countries across every region - how AI already shapes their lives, and what they ask of those who govern it. They value AI, but draw clear red lines, saying who should be responsible for keeping them safe, and calling for AI to be designed with their rights in mind. Their message carries both warning and hope, and a clear demand in their own words: that AI be "shaped with us, not just for us." Read Me & AI

See OHCHR ‘Explainer’ Video on Children’s Rights in the Digital World –  Instagram; Facebook; TikTok

See OHCHR Web Story – Children's Rights in the Digital Environment

See 2-pager on Getting Children’s Safety Online Right

Human Rights Council Engagement:

Resolution 59/23, 2025: “Enhancing international cooperation, technical assistance and capacity building to strengthen national frameworks for the protection and empowerment of children in the digital space”

Resolution 56/6, 2024: “Safety of the child in the digital environment”

Annual Full-day meeting on the Rights of the Child, 2023

Held on 10 March 2023, the Human Rights Council's annual full-day meeting focused on the "Rights of the Child and the Digital Environment." Discussions involved the High Commissioner for Human Rights in dialogue with children themselves on how digital technologies affect their rights, and how legal and policy frameworks can be strengthened. Key themes included:

• Children's empowerment and challenges to their rights in digital spaces
• The need for inclusive and equitable access to technology
• The importance of child participation in digital governance
• The need for accountability by governments and business