Although children and young people account for around a third of internet users worldwide, their perspectives are rarely considered in technology-related policies, design processes and decision-making structures. Furthermore, the lack of diverse voices among this group makes it difficult to develop digital spaces that are oriented towards inclusion, equity and participation. The instrument of a Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) can make an important contribution in this regard. As a practical tool, it enables forward-looking and retrospective analysis of planned and implemented laws, policies and programmes with regard to their impact on children and young people. The aim is to integrate children’s rights into political and administrative decision-making processes early and systematically, ensuring that the best interests of the child (as set out in Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) are not only formally considered, but also implemented practically, concretely and structurally. However, raising awareness of CRIAs in the tech sector and promoting their systematic and practical application remain a key challange.
In General Comment No. 25 (2021) on children’s rights in the digital environment, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child explicitly emphasises the importance of children’s rights in the provision, regulation, design, management and use of digital environments (para. 12), thereby underlining the need for a rights-based approach to digital development. According to the Committee, such an approach helps ensure children’s rights are systematically considered and supports the early identification of risks, enabling preventive action.
There are already growing international efforts to systematically embed the protection, provision and participation of children in digital contexts through political and regulatory measures. Examples include the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which in Art, 28 obliges platforms providers to implement protective measures for minors in online environments as outlined in the respective Guidelines; the Australian government's Safety by Design principles, which aim to proactively prevent risks in the development of digital products; and the African Union’s policy on the online safety and empowerment of children, which promotes regional cooperation and context-sensitive protection.
As the United Nations agency responsible for implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), UNICEF has played a significant role in developing and promoting Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) procedures, which consider children’s rights systematically in the digital space. At an early stage, UNICEF initiated the development of relevant toolkits and best practice examples. Initial approaches included the Child Online Safety Assessment (COSA), as well as the UNICEF Mobile Operators Child Rights Impact Assessment (MO-CRIA), a guide designed specifically for mobile network operators and published in 2016. With the Digital Child Rights Impact Assessment Toolbox (D-CRIA Toolbox), UNICEF also offers comprehensive guidance for companies to conduct sound risk assessments concerning children’s rights in digital environments.
A recently published research article by Sonia Livingstone and Kruakae Pothong, supported by the 5Rights Foundation, explores the potential and current implementation of CRIAs in strengthening and protecting children’s rights in digital environments. The authors' research revealed that some companies, particularly those in the telecommunications and mobile sectors, have started to incorporate CRIAs into their development and business processes. The key drivers behind this development are regulatory requirements and increasing pressure from civil society and political advocacy groups. Nevertheless, the authors emphasise that the application of CRIAs in the digital realm remains largely sector-specific, with social media platforms and the gaming sector often failing to implement them.
Enforcement also varies widely by region, resulting in fragmented protection standards. Furthermore, the authors observe that, so far, child rights considerations have mainly focused on online safety and the right to privacy, while a holistic approach to children’s rights covering not only their rights to protection but also thier rights to provision and participation remeians more or less absent.
Through qualitative interviews with digital service providers, the study identifiesd additional barriers to the effective implementation of CRIAs in the digital context. These include, in particular:
- the perception that CRIAs are bureaucratic, time-consuming, or difficult to integrate into companies practical workflows;
- the practice of using CRIAs merely as a formal tool to retrospectively legitimize decisions that have already been made – rather than as a strategic instrument to actively guide company decisions in line with children’s rights;
- and structural conditions such as the high pace of innovation in the tech sector, economic pressure, and a generally low level of awareness regarding children's rights in many companies.
Although governments are obliged to adopt legislative, administrative and other measures to realise children’s rights under Article 4 of the CRC, regulatory responsibility in the tech sector is often delegated to private actors. As stressed by the authors, a CRIA can serve as an effective tool for designing digital services that align with children’s rights and ensure their holistic consideration rather than addressing isolated aspects. Moreover, the integration of CRIAs into corporate processes can be sensibly combined with existing risk and impact assessment procedures, such as Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs), which are required under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
To further promote and raise awareness of the application of CRIAs in digital development, Livingstone and Pothong (2023) have developed a toolkit that provides concrete guidelines for implementing CRIAs in the digital corporate context.
The full research article by Livingstone & Pothong (2025) on the Child Rights Impact Assessment is available for download.