EFF Submission to OHCHR Consultation on Child Rights and Safety in the Digital Environment
“ The safety of young people in the digital environment cannot be assessed without also considering the safety of young people in offline environments. For millions of young people around the world, the digital environment is their safe place, their haven from an unsafe physical environment, community, or family situation. The digital environment may be the best, perhaps only, place for them to…
The Online Safety and Rights of Young People: An EFF Perspective
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) has initiated a consultation on child rights and safety in the digital environment, which will culminate in a report for the UN Human Rights Council. Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has submitted a comprehensive input, highlighting the importance of considering the whole of a young person's life when addressing safety concerns.
EFF argues that young people often find safety, community, and critical information in the digital environment, which may be their only refuge from unsafe physical surroundings. Limiting their access to online services, even if it brings marginal benefits, could ultimately diminish their overall safety. The OHCHR must consider the entirety of a young person's life, not only their digital environment, when formulating recommendations.
The OHCHR recognizes that young people navigate a digital environment with both significant opportunities and serious risks. Their submission focuses on the disregard for young people's speech and privacy rights by regulators worldwide, who seem more interested in empowering parents than young people themselves. Instead of restricting access to online services, governments should target the systems that generate online risks.
Tech companies need to be accountable for their design choices, data practices, and surveillance-driven business models, while young people must be involved in the decisions that impact them.
The submission also emphasizes the need to protect young people's speech and privacy rights, as well as the importance of involving them in the regulatory process. By doing so, the risks to children's rights online can be mitigated without compromising their overall safety and well-being.
Written by urgent.news from EFF Deeplinks's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
