Research Handbook on Human Rights and Digital Technology

摘要

a. Overview of an emerging problemIn an era of rapid technological change characterized by the growth of online digital networks, the adoption of and increasing reliance on mobile and social media, and a host of associated technological opportunities and risks, it is becoming clear that children's rights are both realized and infringed in new ways. 1 Crucially, digital media are no longer luxuries, but are rapidly becoming essentials of modern existence and this applies increasingly in the global South as well as the global North.Children are at the forefront of trends in digital uptake globally, with an estimated one in three worldwide already using the internet.Much future growth in internet use will occur in the global South, where children constitute between one third and a half of the population; thus the proportion of users under the age of 18 is set to grow significantly. 2 In tandem, challenges associated with digital media are now becoming acute in the global South in the wake of the rapid uptake of digital media, particularly via mobile platforms. 3 The Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989, and has since been supplemented by a series of Optional 1 Children here and throughout are defined as everyone under the age of 18; see UNCRC (1989, Article 1). 2 See Livingstone et al. (2015b), also ITU (2016). 3See Byrne et al. (2016); Livingstone and Bulger (2014); Livingstone et al. (2015b).Protocols and General Commentselaborates a comprehensive framework of children's civil, political, protection, social economic and cultural rights.It affirms children as active agents in the exercise of their rights, delineates the particular rights of children to ensure they develop to their full potential, and sets out special mechanisms to deliver these.However, it was developed before the digital age.In this chapter, we use the terms 'digital' and 'digital media' to refer to the internet and mobile technologies, digital networks and databases, digital contents and services, along with diverse other information and communication technologies (ICTs), and also including more recent developments in artificial intelligence, robotics, algorithms and 'big data' and the 'internet of things'. 4 Increasingly, almost every aspect of children's lives is becoming influenced by, even reliant on, digital and networked media. 5Yet, amidst burgeoning debates about human rights in relation to internet governance in particular and the digital environment more widely, children's rights are not given sufficient profile.Further, where they are given consideration, despite the centrality of Article 12 to the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which codifies children's right to be heard in the decisionmaking processes that will impact their lives, their voices remain marginalized, as does the research and practice that directly engages them.Today, many policy, legislative and regulatory mechanisms do not adequately support and protect children online. 6 Many young internet users around the world do not have the benefit of appropriate forms of adult guidance from parents, teachers and other caregivers on safe and appropriate online engagement. 7 The need for reliable, evidence-based mechanisms and guidance spans the full range of children's rights, but this is too often unrecognized or little understood in many countries. 8 Such difficulties themselves tend to result in anxiety, impeding the search for proportionate, evidence-based, sustainable strategies and initiatives that support children's agency and rights.In this chapter, recognizing the global scope of the Handbook, we draw on geographically and culturally diverse examples of recent research to weigh the issues at stake, showing how the relevant child rights issues relate to the practical contexts of children's experiences with digital technologies around the world.The emergent knowledge base will be integr