The digital transformation shaping our societies presents both tremendous opportunities and significant challenges, including for children’s well-being. Digital environments such as social media platforms have become a constant presence in children’s lives, offering valuable spaces for learning, playing, interacting, and accessing information. Yet, these same platforms bring risks that can harm children’s well-being and development – risks that technological advancements may either amplify or, if properly governed, help mitigate. It is no surprise that these spaces are under increasing scrutiny for their potential to adversely impact children’s well-being and mental health, with mounting concerns reported by health professionals, educators, and parents. With digital technologies and media reaching an ever-growing number of children, including younger age groups, the challenges they pose grow in scale, complexity, and severity.
This report emphasises the urgent need to strengthen our evidence base to tackle the multifaceted challenges that arise from the digitalisation of children’s lives. This means investing in more robust data collection to track children’s digital engagement, assess its impact on their well-being and development, and incorporate insights from children themselves, as well as from health professionals, educators, and parents. By doing so, we can ensure that the support provided is both effective and adaptable to the rapidly evolving digital landscape. This comprehensive and informed approach is needed to protect children’s well-being while enabling them to fully benefit from the opportunities the digital world has to offer.
A whole-of-government approach is key for developing policies that encompass all dimensions of the digital impact on children, including health, education, and social well-being. Achieving this requires strong collaboration between the various government entities responsible for these areas and those overseeing digital regulation. A better understanding of the interplay between children’s digital behaviour and pre-existing vulnerabilities is also needed. This includes drawing on insights from professionals, parents, and young people – particularly those with lived experiences of severe cases – to identify factors of vulnerability and the dynamics that drive them.
The OECD, through its Recommendation on Children in the Digital Environment, is working to address these issues by placing children’s safety at the heart of digital product development. The Organisation has also provided guidelines on implementing digital safety by design, ensuring that products and services designed for children meet high safety standards. Furthermore, in the OECD Declaration on Building Better Policies for More Resilient Health Systems, OECD Member countries have called for coordinated governmental initiatives to mitigate the risks posed by digitalisation and social media platforms, particularly for children and young people’s mental health, and ultimately ensure a safer, better tailored digital experience.
Mathias Cormann,
OECD Secretary-General