Children are growing up in a world where their first steps might be documented on Instagram before they can even crawl. Their voices, faces, and personal milestones live online—from birthday party videos on YouTube to classroom apps tracking homework. It’s all so normalized now that many kids have a digital presence before they even know what the internet is. But with so much exposure comes a big question: Are children’s digital rights actually being protected?
What Are Children’s Digital Rights?
Digital rights for children include privacy, freedom of expression, access to information, and protection from harm. They also include the right to participate in decisions about their data, to have it deleted, and to be educated about digital safety. These are extensions of the basic human rights children already have—just applied to the digital space.
But applying them isn’t always straightforward. Technology is moving fast, and the rules often lag behind. Many platforms and services weren’t built with children in mind, yet kids are active users, whether they’re watching videos, playing games, or using school apps.
Are Legal Protections Enough?
In the U.S., the main law focused on kids’ online privacy is the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). It was introduced in 1998 and aims to protect the personal information of children under 13. It requires companies to get verifiable parental consent before collecting data from kids.
That sounds solid, but COPPA has limitations. It doesn’t apply to teenagers. It doesn’t always cover platforms based outside the U.S. And enforcement is tough—companies can say they’re not targeting kids and avoid responsibility when kids join anyway.
In Europe, the GDPR offers more robust protection. It recognizes children as a special category and includes rights like access to data, data deletion, and consent rules. Some countries even allow teenagers to take control of their data at a younger age. But again, enforcement depends on resources and awareness.
Platforms and Loopholes
Social media platforms have age restrictions, but they’re easy to bypass. A 10-year-old can sign up for Instagram just by checking a box. Platforms may close accounts if they find out, but usually, they don’t go looking. And kids who grow up online often don’t know they’re handing over personal data in the process—location, interests, contacts, photos, and more.
There’s also the issue of how platforms monetize engagement. Targeted advertising is a huge revenue source, and data collection feeds that system. While it’s illegal to target under-13 users with personalized ads in many regions, when kids pretend to be older, protections get blurry.
The Role of Parents
Parents have the power to protect their children online—but they can also be part of the problem. The term “sharenting” describes the habit of parents posting about their kids on social media, often without thinking about consent. A toddler’s dance video might go viral, but that video stays online long after the moment has passed.
Some parents even create social media profiles for their children, laying the foundation of an online identity before the child has any say. While many do it with love and pride, these posts can have unintended consequences—digital permanence, online exposure, and loss of privacy.
School Tech
Technology in classrooms has grown rapidly, especially after the shift to remote learning. Edtech platforms track everything from attendance and test scores to browsing habits and communication logs. While this can help personalize learning, it also creates digital profiles of students—often with limited transparency.
Many schools sign contracts with third-party vendors, and it’s not always clear what those vendors do with student data. Are they using it for analytics? Marketing? How secure is the information? Parents and students often aren’t told.
The Global Gap
Not all countries offer the same level of protection. In some places, there are no specific laws governing children’s data at all. That creates a huge gap in protection depending on where a child lives. Even in countries with laws, implementation can be slow or underfunded.
Organizations like UNICEF have been working to develop global guidelines for digital child rights, but there’s still a lot of catching up to do. In the meantime, children continue to grow up online, often without understanding the risks or the tools to navigate them safely.
What Kids Actually Want
It’s easy to talk about kids’ rights without asking kids themselves. But surveys and interviews with young people show that many of them care deeply about their digital privacy. They want control over what’s shared, who sees it, and how it’s used. They want to feel safe online, not surveilled. They want education about how the internet works—not just warnings about stranger danger, but real discussions about algorithms, ads, and data footprints.
