Principle 10:development

While the digital environment provides children with opportunities for learning and social, cultural, recreational and playful activities, child development requires resources and designs that offer creative outlets to encourage imagination, educational opportunities of all kinds, resources that recognise and celebrate cultural and linguistic diversity, and an enabling environment for children to thrive in, belong to and pursue the opportunities they choose. The principle of development draws together three sets of children’s rights:1 • Education: making education (formal, non-formal and informal) accessible and affordable to children of all ages and circumstances to enable learning and, more ambitiously, children’s fullest development. • Culture: enabling children to enjoy their own cultures and that of others and allowing children to ‘profess or practise’ their religion and speak their native language. • Play, leisure and artistic activities: the right to play, recreational activities and rest. While adults have the power to provide these opportunities, too often these are insufficient, inappropriate or restricted from children’s points of view. Society is often ambivalent about the role of digital technologies in children’s development, being unclear which digital activities bring benefits or harms. Public, private and third sector actors all have a crucial role to play in building a digital world in which children can fully develop.