The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee), in its contribution to the 2019 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, emphasized that “[i]ntegrating a child rights perspective and ensuring the participation of children as active agents of change in decisions relating to development is crucial for achieving inclusive, equitable and sustainable development.” The CRC Committee also reiterated that “child participation and active consultation in the formulation, planning, implementation and monitoring of policies, programmes and projects” is crucial to having a child rights-based approach to inclusive development.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the space for child participation remains crucial. Children are among the severely affected victims of the pandemic with more impacts still expected to appear in the coming years. This alone is a compelling reason for children’s voices to be heard and given due weight in the decision-making processes, especially in matters that affect the full realization of children’s rights. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed most of the social interactions and social services to shift to online platforms, and the spaces for child participation during the pandemic became more digital.
For some children, using digital technology to express their views on civil and political matters is not something new. In 2017, UNICEF reported that children and adolescents engage in digital activism and digital slacktivism or“are using social media and digital technology to amplify their voices and seek solutions to problems affecting them and their communities.” The recently adopted General Comment 25 (GC 25) on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child also underscores the important role of the digital environment in supporting child-led activism and children’s empowerment as advocates for their rights and the rights of others. The digital environment can be instrumental to the realization of children’s civil and political rights as it provides opportunities for children to learn from each other, form associations, and amplify their voices.
With the shift to online platforms during this pandemic period, stakeholders must ensure that the online discussions remain child-friendly and that the participation of children would not put them in any form of harm before, during, and after the online discussions.
Aside from ensuring child protection, stakeholders must also ensure inclusivity in the online discussions. This remains a challenge, however, given the different dimensions of digital divide highlighted by the pandemic. For instance, global data shows that children and adolescents under the age of 18 account for one in three internet users and that the Asia-Pacific region has the largest number of internet users. However, less than 14% in the region are estimated to have access to reliable and affordable internet speed, and that Asia also ranks second to the African region in having the highest number of non-users of digital platforms and tools among children aged 15 to 24, the age range often considered to be highly connected. As such, when schools turned to online delivery of lessons to ensure learning continuity during the pandemic, children who lack resources to get access to hardware and connectivity requirements face difficulties in catching up.
Moreover, not all children have developed the necessary skills to use online technology prior to the pandemic. In 2017, UNICEF reported that there are more than 175,000 children first time users of internet daily. With the pandemic, even children below the age of 13 are introduced to social networking tools for which they may have limited preparation. Similarly, the issue of the generational digital divide is observable in the cases of teachers and parents who are yet to develop their digital skills to provide support to the online learning of their children.
Digital technology has shown its potential to provide tools for the inclusion of marginalized children and other members of society. However, digital technology can also exacerbate marginalization. Digital accessibility and content remain irrelevant to the lives of children and communities who speak minority languages and whose lived realities are not represented in the digital environment. Experiences during the pandemic showed that COVID-19 related information, including services and preventive measures, is not accessible to children speaking indigenous languages and to children with disabilities. Furthermore, the pandemic presents clear examples of gender digital divide, with girls having less online access because they are expected to do domestic chores.
Taking all these circumstances and conditions into consideration, CRC Asia and ChildFund Korea, with the support of Plan International Asia Regional Hub and Save the Children Philippines developed a Child Participation Guidelines for Online Discussions with Children. We also sought the expertise of Child Rights Connect and Hong Kong Committee on Children’s Rights in developing this document.
In partnership with other organizations, the Guidelines will be further developed into other formats (e.g. video clips) and translated into other languages.
Download the Guide [English – Full]
Download the Guide [English – Summarized]
Download the Guide [Bahasa Indonesia – Full]
Download the Guide [Bahasa Indonesia – Summarized]
Download the Guide [Korean – Full]
Download the Guide [Traditional Chinese – Full]
Download the Guide [Traditional Chinese – Summarized]
The Guidelines are mainly intended for civil society organizations (CSOs) organizing online consultations, discussions, surveys, and other activities with children. However, its use may also be mainstreamed to schools and teachers who are implementing online learning; and other stakeholders mandated to hear the views of children (e.g. government bodies, private companies). Its use by these different sectors will help surface practical insights and innovations in the application of the recently adopted GC 25.
Recognizing that a number of child rights organizations already have their own organizational child participation guidelines and child safeguarding protocols, the Guidelines, designed especially for online discussions with children, may be used to complement those existing guidelines and protocols.
