This year’s report is about the how children’s lives are increasingly being affected by the digital technology for better and worse. It surveys the landscape of digital opportunity as it relates to – and affects – children. It examines the digital divides that prevent millions of children from accessing through the internet new opportunities to learn and, someday, to participate in the digital economy, helping to break intergenerational cycles of poverty.
It also explores the undeniably dark side of the internet and digital technology, from cyber bullying to online child sexual abuse to Dark web transactions and currencies that can make it easier to conceal trafficking and other illegal activities that harm children. It reviews some of the debates about less obvious harms children may suffer from life in a digital age – from digital dependencies to the possible impact of digital technology on brain development and cognition. It outlines a set of practical recommendations that can help guide more effective policymaking and more responsible business practices to benefit children in a digital age.
Equally important, this report includes the perspectives of children and young people on the impact of digital technology in their lives – telling their own stories about the issues that most affect them.