Recognizing children’s rights in relation to the digital environment: challenges of voice and evidence, principle and practice

In the global South and the global North, the digital environment poses new and broad-ranging challenges for states in meeting their responsibilities to secure children’s rights to provision, protection and participation, as stipulated by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. These challenges include privacy hacks, new forms of sexual exploitation, scalable networked solutions for education and participation, the disintermediation of both parents and the state, discriminatory algorithmic calculations and much more. This chapter draws on geographically and culturally diverse examples of recent research to weigh the issues at stake, showing how the relevant child rights issues relate to the practical contexts of children’s experiences with digital technologies internationally. We pinpoint the pressing issues, controversies and knowledge gaps relevant to children’s experiences with the digital environment, as revealed by evidence gained in partnership with children, thereby to inform vital efforts to promote and fulfil their rights in the digital age.