From recognition to real-world change: children’s rights in the digital environment
As childhood becomes ever more deeply shaped by digital technologies, the LSE’s Digital Futures for Children (DFC) Centre marked World Children’s Day on 20 November 2025, by convening a public lecture and expert roundtable to focus on a critical question: what difference has the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment No. 25 actually made since its adoption in 2021?
Dr Kim Sylwander, a researcher at the Digital Futures for Children Centre reports on the day’s discussions.
General comment No. 25 was a landmark step in recognising that children’s rights apply fully and equally in the digital environment. It clarified how the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child should guide laws, policies, regulation, education and business practices in relation to digital technologies. The public lecture highlighted that recognition alone is not enough. The challenge now is translating principles into meaningful change in children’s everyday lives.
The lecture presented new findings from a systematic analysis of the 79 country reviews that the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s conducted since the adoption of General comment No. 25. The evidence shows a significant shift in how States and the Committee apply and understand children’s rights in the digital environment. Although great progress can be seen across regions, from strengthened privacy, data protection and safety regulation in countries like France and Brazil, wide disparities remain in both regulatory sophistication and infrastructural capacity, particularly in most low-connectivity and low-income states.
Persistent gaps include children’s participation rights, including their freedom of expression online, and their involvement in shaping digital policy and platform design remains underdeveloped. Much of the global response to children’s digital lives is still dominated by a protectionist lens, with limited attention to children’s agency, creativity, and right to participate in decisions that affect them.
These tensions were explored further in the expert roundtable, which brought together researchers, civil society organisations, regulators and international agencies. Participants reflected on what has worked in advancing children’s rights, and what has not. A recurring theme was the need for robust, context-specific evidence that can be strategically used in policy debates. Rights-based arguments are essential. But they are most effective when paired with technical expertise, clear policy proposals and an understanding of regulatory processes.
Children’s own voices were also highlighted as a powerful yet underused form of evidence. Experts discussed examples from helplines, youth consultations and research with young people, showing how digital design choices can shape pressure, harm and exclusion in ways adults often overlook. Ensuring that children’s lived experiences inform regulation and media practice is essential if digital environments are to support not just safety, but wellbeing and flourishing.
The discussions concluded with a shared recognition that General comment No. 25 has opened important doors. It has provided a common language and framework for accountability across governments, regulators, media organisations and technology companies. Yet its impact remains uneven and fragile, shaped by political resistance, commercial pressures and global inequalities.
In closing, the event reaffirmed a child-rights-by-design approach that goes beyond safety and privacy alone, drawing on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and General comment No. 25 to embed participation, play, wellbeing and media literacy into the design and governance of digital environments, and to provide clear criteria not only for companies and policymakers, but also for educators, parents and children themselves to assess whether digital environments truly work in children’s best interests.
Dr Kim Sylwander is a researcher at the Digital Futures for Children centre at the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Kim’s research has focused on children, youth and media, specifically online hate, racism, sexuality, and technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse. She has worked for the UN, in civil society and academia. She has served as a government-appointed expert in inquiries on sexual exploitation and the effects of digital media on children in Sweden, and has led a government inquiry on the effects of pornography on children.
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