How to create digital products that respect children's rights. A free, open source guide is out.

Is it possible to create a better digital life for our children? What could we do?  How can digital products and services respect children’s rights? How could we convince all parties involved to take the challenge?

Some 60 designers, researchers, psychologists, experts on children’s rights and other professionals attended a ”Talkoot” in Helsinki from Jan. 19 to Jan. 21 to create an open and free digital guide to integrate children’s rights into the design process.

I watched parts of the ”Talkoot” (a Finish term for the concept of coming together and creating something larger than an individual can create alone) broadcast live on the Designing for Children Youtube channel, as I am always eager to find new perspectives and views on the subject. I am not a designer, but I want to learn more about how digital products should respect my kid’s rights. It may change the way I see and understand a game he is playing, for example, and raise new questions and discussions about what we should be aware of as parents. It was also a good opportunity for me (and it can be for you, too) to re-read Children’s Rights. As my son already knew them thanks to a thematic week at school, it is time for us to go to the next level: children’s rights in the cyberworld.

Although the participants at the Talkoot ”translated” these rights for digital products designers, I find them useful for a larger audience as well: parents, cybersecurity providers and teachers, as they can be used to decide if a product respects your child’s rights and, if not, to take appropriate measures and create ”shields” of protection when the products themselves fail to do so.

These Key Principles that came out of the Talkoot:

Everyone can play

Give me control and offer support

I intend to make my influence matter

Offer me something safe

Create space for play (including a choice to chill)

Encourage me to be active and play with others

Give me room to explore and experiment

Use communication I can relate to

Make it flexible for me

You don’t know me, so make sure you include me

Technological innovations have opened up a new world for our children. They have unprecedented opportunities to express themselves, participate, access information, learn, share, play and communicate – opportunities we could only have dreamt of before. On the other hand, becoming ”citizens” of this new world from a very early age exposes them to risks that may compromise their well-being and violate their rights. Inappropriate content or conduct, violation of children’s data privacy, online bullying, grooming and sextortion are just a few examples of the common dangers they may encounter.

I wasn’t (really) surprised to see online safety pop up as a major issue. Like in the ”real” world, safety (emotional and physical) is the first condition for a child’s well-being and healthy psychological and cognitive development. In my opinion, the ”I want my child to be safe at all times” is all parents’ mantra nowadays.

Participants at the Talkoot identified the following challenges that a designer should keep in mind when developing a product:

I want my child to be safe at all times.

How have you taken into account data privacy and safety issues?

Have you taken physical safety into account?

Provide safe environments that both children and their parents can trust at all times.

Install age-appropriate mechanisms that prevent children from sharing information that might harm them now or later on.

Pay particular attention to these issues if designing a social media platform.

Provide a safe encryption mechanism so the children’s data is safe at all times.

Consider the child’s body and how your product might impact them physically at different developmental stages of their life.

In an ideal world, all these requests will be ”checked”, and parents could take a breath of rellief. Until then, we must take and share the responsibility of keeping our children safe and happy online.

That’s why I recommend you take a look at the open source guide the experts have developed to find the inspiration you need.

The discussion has just begun. You can join it and share your thoughts on what could we all (Bitdefender included) do better to help parents and children benefit from the latest knowledge, wisdom and fun of the online world and reduce the risks as much as possible.