Better Internet for Kids

This 2024 UNICEF publication presents initial findings from a project on how child rights impact assessments (CRIAs) can be applied to digital business activities. It starts from the responsibility of businesses, under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Children’s Rights and Business Principles, to identify, assess and address risks to children’s rights. The publication reviews the existing CRIA landscape and identifies the need for stronger, more consistent approaches that can respond to rapidly evolving digital technologies and business models.

This 2024 UNICEF Innocenti report examines how digital games can contribute positively to children’s well-being when they are designed with children’s needs in mind. Based on empirical research with hundreds of children across six countries, it tests and further develops the RITEC framework, looking at dimensions such as autonomy, competence, emotions, relationships, creativity, identity, inclusion and safety. The report’s main conclusion is that digital play can support children’s well-being, but these benefits depend heavily on design choices.

WeProtect’s Model National Response (MNR) is a comprehensive framework designed to help countries develop coordinated national responses to online child sexual exploitation and abuse. It sets out the capabilities needed across policy and governance, criminal justice, victim support, societal prevention, industry, and media and communications. It is intended as an adaptable model that countries can apply according to their national context.

This 2022 WeProtect–UNICEF report reviews how the MNR had been implemented across 42 Alliance countries. It examines national approaches across six domains, including policy and governance, criminal justice, victim support, societal responses, industry, and media and communications. It identifies examples of good practice, implementation challenges and gaps, and sets out priorities for improving national and international responses to online child sexual exploitation and abuse

The report examines emerging global regulatory trends aimed at creating healthier digital environments for children, families, and society. It highlights how children’s cognitive vulnerabilities and increasing exposure to digital media intensify risks related to harmful content, data exploitation, and algorithmic manipulation. 

This report explores how children are interacting with AI chatbots, which are computer programmes designed to simulate conversation with a person. The findings show that while these tools can offer clear benefits, such as 24/7 learning support and a non-judgemental space to ask questions, they pose risks to children’s safety and development. 

The report seeks to centre the human impact of AI CSAM (child sexual abuse material), setting out clearly the harm caused to children and wider society. It captures the views of expert analysts, who are on the frontline of removing AI CSAM from the internet, as well as excerpts from dark web offender communities, where users openly celebrate the accessibility and sophistication of AI-generated abuse.

This report investigates how children are represented in digital policies around the world. The focus is on global patterns and trends, as well as instances of good practice in supporting the realisation of children’s rights as part of digital transformation and creating a more inclusive digital society. 

Smartphones - and now artificial intelligence (AI) - are shaping childhood, presenting both opportunities and risks. With public debate having focused overwhelmingly on risk, governments have responded with “one-size-fits-all” access rules, bans, and other control mechanisms. 

This report explores the short-term and long-term effects of digital technologies—such as smartphones, social media, and online games—on adolescents' psychological, social, and physical well-being. Based on 15 studies conducted over six years by the Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society (IRTIS) in the Czech Republic, the impact of technology is highly context-dependent, influenced by the specific online activity, affected by individual characteristics, and differs according to the various dimensions of well-being.