Digital technology

Digital technology is an unstoppable force that is shaping modern life, including children’s lives. With a digital world at their fingertips, children with access to the technology have seemingly endless opportunities for play, learning, civic engagement and social interactions. Indeed, digital technology can open doors to learning, community, jobs and services for children often excluded by location, poverty, discrimination or emergency. In addition, the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), extended reality (XR) and neurotechnology offer the promise of even greater opportunity for children and young people.

However, untethered access to digital technology brings risks – to children’s well-being and their mental and physical health. As the digital world increasingly tracks and shapes children’s choices and actions, their free will is jeopardized, and their healthy development is threatened.

For UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, one of the overriding questions is: How can we maximize the benefits of digital technology in children’s lives while mitigating the risks of harm?

To dig deeper into this question, we research the misuse of digital technologies for child sexual exploitation and abuse. And we examine the wide gaps between the digital haves and have nots. These efforts include projects such as Global Kids Online and Disrupting Harm.

Looking to the future of digital technology, UNICEF foresight analysis asks how these developments could benefit the most children without putting them at risk. The goal of this work is to create and promote policies, guidelines and regulations that open opportunities for all children while also protecting them from potential harm.