Dangers of the Digital Era for Children

Children are one of the most vulnerable groups because of their young age and the high dependency on others. It is the responsibility of adults to ensure that these children are protected and their rights respected, this becomes a harder task as time goes on especially now in the digital era. There is a need to look at how dangerous digital times are for children who are easily manipulated in building their opinions as everything they see and hear is absorbed and there is a high lack of judgment. Evidence suggests that this is the first time a generation is growing in front of the screen and that there will be future studies on how this generation functions differently than the rest. This is the norm with evolution, things change which makes it clear the need to pay close attention to how this younger generation is affected and know how to accommodate to the changing world.

According to UNICEF, digital technologies have increased the scale of child abuse and exploitation because nowadays child offenders have easier access to children via social media or online gaming forum.[1] This already shows how parents or adults do not have full access to what their children are doing on the internet, it is impossible to keep track of what they are viewing, reading, watching or interacting with. This has become an easy way for child offenders to initiate conversations, where they are able to ask to set up dates to meet and receive intimate pictures of children, and send the children pictures of their peers without their consent. Not only that but also, online gaming forum is one of the highest recruiting grounds for terrorist groups for instance in 2020 video game communication applications were increasingly used to share right-wing terrorist and extremist propaganda.[2]

Advances in digital technology permits trafficking rings to avoid detection by creating false profiles through encrypted platforms and the creation of false identities, aiding them to pursue multiple victims at the same time. It leaves law enforcement at a disadvantage to not be able to reach these people responsible for the exploitation of children and creates an international issue that has to be addressed. There is already a great disconnect when it comes to legislating technology development to look at the nexus of this and children’s rights it is possible to see a considerable gap in knowledge and hence the lack of protection of children’s rights in the digital age.

The demand for children performing sexual acts is increasing and the greatest challenge to avoid content as such being exposed is the lack of a legislative framework that allows thorough investigations and are able to then prosecute sexual exploitation and child abuse. Thus, it is necessary for law enforcement to work with private sector using international guidelines by ensuring a humans rights approach to legislation involving technology. The best method would be to start with an overview of children rights and new technologies, addressing social media and the potential litigation of certain applications which are highly exposed to contributing to the rise of exploitation. This means, a focus on data protection and children’s rights looking at the legal instruments that are available for tech companies for instance, with the use of the UN Guiding Principles on business and human rights that will promote the responsibility of tech companies to prevent human rights abuses. Also, in order to be legally binding, governments should be able to look at the tools existent to protect children and to incorporate these quasi-legal instruments in ensuring that there are norms followed that will create enforceable rights and obligations.

By The European Institute for International Law and International Relations.