Rights of children and young people in digital environments

The support material for youth workers “Rights of children and young people in digital environments” highlights how important it is for youth workers to recognise and understand the rights and opportunities that children and young people have in digital environments.

The house rules presented in the material include instructions with which youth workers can promote the equality and privacy of children and young people in the digital world. The material emphasises the importance of security, especially in combatting harmful content such as bullying, violence and racism. In addition, the material highlights the right of children and young people to reliable information and the opportunity to improve their media literacy.

Supporting creativity and independent activities is also a key theme in the material, as is civic participation and understanding of social change. The material impresses on the reader the importance of understanding that the development of technology affects young people’s lives in many ways, and that youth workers need to be prepared to support them in understanding these changes.

The material also states that it is important for youth workers to engage in training and to improve their personal competence so that they are better prepared to support young people in digital environments.

The content is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and General Comment No. 25 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The parties that contributed to the material include Verke, the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare, the YMCA of Finland, Save the Children Finland, EHYT Finnish Association for Substance Abuse Prevention, the Finnish Federation of Settlement Houses (FFSH), Koordinaatti, the Finnish Association for Children and Youth (LNK) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.

 

Links:

General Comment 25 https://lapsiasia.fi/documents/25250457/38754461/CRC_CGC_25.pdf

Convention on the Rights of the Child:  https://lapsiasia.fi/lapsen-oikeuksien-sopimus

House rules as text:

1. Accessibility: We ensure that children and young people have equal access to digital technology by, for example, providing guidance on how to use assistive technology and by taking accessibility into account in all our communications on social media, our websites and in other materials we produce.
2. Equality: We ensure that children and young people have equal opportunities to access and benefit from digital environments. We actively work to prevent discrimination and to ensure that our online services do not discriminate against anyone. 
3. Privacy: We respect the privacy of children and young people and ensure that personal information is handled securely and confidentially. We make sure that children and young people are aware of their own rights regarding social media and digital environments. 
4. Safety: We always intervene when we encounter harmful content such as bullying, violence and racism. We work with various stakeholders to combat harmful content.
5. Right to information: We safeguard the right of children and young people to receive correct and reliable information in digital environments by, for example, providing media and information literacy training and encouraging the use of official sources of information.
6. Media and information literacy: We promote the media literacy of children and young people by, for example, teaching them to understand social media algorithms, identify fake news and use trusted sources.
7. Creativity and self-reliance: We encourage children and young people to use digital tools in a creative way by, for example, organising digital art exhibitions or engaging them in digital projects.
8. Civic participation: We encourage and support children’s and young people’s safe production of content, and encourage them to engage in digital civic participation on official platforms and social media. 
9. Society: We understand that digital innovations have a wide-ranging impact on the lives and rights of children and young people, even if they do not use the internet at all. For example, we highlight how technological developments affect working life, society and education, and we help children and young people understand the significance of these changes for their future.
10. Training and development: We actively develop our own expertise and provide training for children and young people by, for example, organising events related to the use of digital tools.