Social Media and Children’s Rights
CRC Committee to Focus on Social Media and Children’s Rights
On September 12, 2014, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child will host a Day of General Discussion on “Digital Media and Children’s Rights.” Days of General Discussion can be important not only for the substantive information presented but also because they can spur the development of a new General Comment on an emerging or critical rights issue. Across a range of children’s rights issues—from education rights to trafficking and other forms of exploitation—technology and social media can be employed either to facilitate children’s rights violations or to help children realize their rights.
Although the media has received attention by human rights treaty bodies over the years—the CRC Committee held a day of general discussion on children and the media in 1996—rapid innovation in social media and information technology prompt important new questions. And as all of the major human rights instruments were drafted years or even decades before widespread use of the internet and social media, many of these questions are not addressed in the text of treaties.
Numerous rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child are implicated by technology, including the principle of non-discrimination (Art. 2), the best interests of the child (Art. 3), the right to be heard (Art. 12); freedom of expression (Art. 11), freedom of association (Art. 15); the right to access information (Art. 17); freedom from violence (Art. 19); the right to education (Arts. 28 and 29); the right to rest, leisure, play and the right to enjoy one’s culture (Art. 31); protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (Art. 34); protection from all forms of exploitation (Art. 36).
The CRC Day of General Discussion will include two working groups: (1) children’s equal and safe access to digital media and information and communications technology (ICT); and (2) children’s empowerment and engagement through digital media and ICT.
Harnessing technology to promote and sustain human rights, while simultaneously working to minimize harms associated with or facilitated by technology, must be on the agenda of all human rights organizations and treaty bodies. Thus, the outcomes of this Day of General Discussion merit attention by human rights advocates, regardless of their issue of focus.