United Nations has called for urgent global action to make the digital space safer for children, warning that online harm is being fuelled by the design choices and business practices of major technology companies.
Gatekeepers News reports that in a statement released on Friday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said governments and tech firms must take stronger responsibility for protecting children online.
“The digital world that connects children to learning, community, and creativity also exposes them to real risks to their safety, privacy, and wellbeing,” Turk said.
According to him, many of the dangers children face online are not accidental but are linked to platform features intentionally designed to maximise engagement.
“Online harms to kids’ safety, privacy and wellbeing are not innate or inevitable; they result from design choices and business practices that undermine safety, including addictive design features, such as infinite scroll, autoplay, and persistent notifications from apps,” he stated.
Turk stressed that protecting children online must become a global priority.
“Enhancing protection of children online is an urgent priority that we need to make sure not only gets done — but that it gets done right,” he added.
The UN rights chief called on governments to strengthen regulation, oversight, and accountability measures for digital platforms, while urging technology companies to build child safety protections directly into their products.
He argued that broad social media bans alone would not effectively solve the problem.
“Blanket social media bans are not a one-off panacea,” Turk said.
“Simply limiting access to platforms that remain unsafe cannot stand as the endpoint in effectively protecting children.”
Turk also warned that relying solely on age restrictions would fail to address the underlying algorithms and platform designs that contribute to unsafe online environments.
He said technology firms must embed safety “by design, instead of shifting the burden to parents and children”.
The UN official further cautioned that outright bans could easily be bypassed and may even drive children toward riskier and less regulated online spaces.
As part of its recommendations, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a set of 10 guidelines titled “Getting Children’s Safety Online Right”.
The guidelines call for maximum protection of children’s data as a default setting and oppose the commercial micro-targeting of children based on their digital activity.
The recommendations also suggest that emerging concerns, including addictive platform features and artificial intelligence chatbots, may require age-related restrictions and closer oversight.
According to the UN, safety measures adopted by governments and companies should be independently monitored and backed by legal consequences strong enough to deter violations.
The organisation also emphasised the need for accessible remedies for children whose rights are violated online.
“Whatever regulations are adopted, it is essential to avoid inadvertently causing further harms. For example, age verification done wrong can both fail at its goal and endanger the privacy of both kids and adults,” Turk said.
