A trustworthy future web must reflect the rights—and perspectives—of children. Emphasizing consideration of the entirety of children’s rights does not diminish the critical importance of protecting them from harm within a quickly evolving threat landscape.
A growing body of research shows that involving children directly in decisions that impact them (in an age-appropriate way) is key to identifying their best interests, and to effectively understanding and addressing children’s diverse needs. However, children have traditionally had little direct say in the development of the technology policies and digital products that affect them. Instead, their interests—if they are considered at all—are largely represented by adults.
Policies and products aimed at protecting children’s safety increasingly play a pivotal role in influencing trust and safety practices within companies, as well as driving forward new laws and regulations based in protecting children’s safety. Combined with the absence of actual children from policy conversations, maintaining a singular focus on children’s safety can lead to the violation of other crucial rights that children enjoy. It can also undermine space for childrens’ input or involvement in determining tradeoffs, and lead to counterproductive outcomes such as rights violations for whole other communities of rightsholders.
Ensuring children’s safety and upholding children's rights requires a holistic approach that encompasses the full range of children’s rights, including participation, provision, and protection. This is particularly critical with regard to Global Majority communities, where existing inequities within policy, product development, and research risk being doubly visited upon children. Emphasizing the consideration of the entirety of children’s rights does not diminish in any way the critical importance of protecting them from harm within a quickly evolving threat landscape. It does, however, improve the likelihood that future iterations of online spaces will provide space and opportunity for children to benefit from online spaces where they can not only be safe, but also be empowered to learn, explore, play, grow, and evolve.