Child rights impact assessment: a policy tool for a rights-respecting digital environment

Businesses that develop digital products and services often anticipate generic users, paying insufficient attention to the needs and rights of children who may use or be impacted by their practices. This article investigates the potential of child rights impact assessment (CRIA) as a policy tool to protect and respect children’s rights in the tech sector. The methods draw on desk research, interviews with product designers and developers, and a review of how child rights impact assessment is currently deployed by tech businesses. The results show that both regulation and advocacy have increased businesses’ attention to children’s rights, as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Good practice is most evident as a response to data protection regulation introduced by governments, as well as by telecommunications companies in response to advocacy by UNICEF and others. However, the findings also reveal multiple barriers to the use of child rights impact assessment, and only partial implementation of the tool in practice. We conclude with recommendations for greater multistakeholder efforts to increase its application and effectiveness, so as to facilitate children’s rights in the digital environment.