IGF 2020 Lessons learned from the Pandemic: child rights and safety

The COVID-19 Corona pandemic has put the world’s population in an entirely unique situation. It poses new challenges for people of all age categories. However, if there is one tiny upside, it seems likely that when we come out at the other end of the current crisis a large number of individuals will be more acutely aware of something children have known for a long time. The distinction between analogue and digital, between face-to-face and virtual, is vanishingly small. What does this mean for children's rights, for their freedoms and for the protections they require under the terms of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)?

Evidence has shown for some time that exposure to risks to children increases when they spend larger amounts of time online. These could be in the form of undesirable contacts made through online games, exposure to unsuitable content or dubious purchase offers. These bring to mind the protective rights under UNCRC Art. 17 (protection of minors in the media), Art. 19 (protection against commercial exploitation) and Art. 34 (protection against sexual abuse). And it is necessary to keep in mind that home is not always the safest place for every child. Evidence also shows that most abusers portrayed on child abuse images are from the circle of trust of the victim. In other words, child abuse images for a large part are evidence of intra-familiar sexual abuse. For this and other reasons, certain kinds of risks might be more likely to translate into harms when children and parents need to stay at home in close proximity for long periods of time with no escape route.

Children have a right to education (Art. 28), but in families where adults and children normally share the hardware, it can be hard to reconcile home-based employment-related work and schoolwork. Social disadvantage will be further exacerbated where families lack the necessary technical equipment and enough bandwidth to access the internet at acceptable speeds. When Art. 31 rights to play and to leisure or to participate in art and culture can only be exercised at home because playgrounds and youth recreation spaces are closed, further conflicts and tensions arise and everybody’s patience can be put to the severest of tests. Notwithstanding their need for protection, children also have a right to privacy (Art. 16), even in unusual times like in the middle of a pandemic. A lot depends on the age and capabilities of each individual child but, in principle, children have a right to stay in contact with their friends without their parents or siblings "knowing everything", and they are entitled to know that the contents of their communications are not visible to unauthorised persons.

Whether it is the municipality, the national government or one of its agencies, in the family and wider social environment, the best interests of the child should always have priority in all decision making. This is the basic principle of the UNCRC. This principle remains every bit as valid and important in difficult times, as it does in normal times. In this session we will assess the situation of children’s rights during the crisis in order to learn lessons for the future.