Good governance of children’s data

Project overview | Manifesto | EdTech | Case studies | Additional insights| Issue briefs | Advisory groups

Data, if used responsibly, can address social problems and challenges for the world’s children, while offering tremendous potential for innovation. Data flows are a core component of today’s digital economy, and children’s data comprises a large portion of this economy. However, the obstacles standing in the way of better governance of children’s data are many and complex, and have been allowed to grow largely unchallenged as data has come to play an increasingly important role in children’s lives. As the technology revolution unfolds, harmonized, proactive policies backed by foresight are crucial to maximize its benefits while preventing unintended negative consequences for children.

In 2021, UNICEF published a Manifesto on Better Governance of Children’s Data to begin to address these challenges by raising awareness of issues specific to children’s data and pointing to key gaps in policy and practice; and setting aspirational benchmarks to encourage governments and the private sector to specifically address children’s rights within existing and future data governance frameworks.

With the support of the Government of Finland, we are continuing our foundational work on good data governance for children by promoting the implementation of 10 key action points from the Manifesto. The second phase of this project explores three key areas:

• Data governance in education technology (EdTech): Our landscape review documents current approaches across various countries and develops recommendations for regulators, governments and the private sector.

• Fair data economy for children: Our think piece unpacks how children’s rights can be integrated into a global fair data economy and aims to inspire further thought leadership in this area.

• Innovations in data governance for children: Our compendium of innovations in data governance for children serves as a toolkit to capture best practices and policy approaches through a series of case studies.

The three initiatives are connected through the input and guidance of an expert advisory group to help foster global collaboration and align efforts to prioritize children's rights and interests in the evolving data governance landscape.