What is the status of digital children’s rights?
In this Digital Child Rights Monitor we give insight how the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) addressed digital child rights in its 2024 Concluding Observations on Turkey. The urgency scale reflects how strongly the CRC highlights an issue in its recommendations — the higher the score, the bigger or more pressing the problem. This scale helps visualize which digital child rights issues the CRC considers most urgent and where Congo faces its greatest challenges. If a country gets a low urgency score it does not necessarily mean the country is doing good, it just means the CRC made little to no mention to it.
Summary
High priority
Infrastructure & Capacity (6) stands out as the primary area of concern in Congo’s digital child-rights context, even within a limited evidence base. The available observations point to gaps in data collection systems, including the need to improve data infrastructure, establish confidential data-handling mechanisms, and strengthen birth registration processes.
These findings suggest structural weaknesses in system readiness and data availability. The scarcity of data itself further underscores the urgency, indicating limited visibility into children’s digital rights and a need for stronger monitoring and institutional capacity.
Medium priority
There is no medium priority.
Low priority
Other thematic areas — including Digital Access & Participation, Privacy & Data Protection, Online Safety & Protection, and Digital Health & Well-being — are not explicitly addressed in the available data. This absence suggests that these issues receive little to no attention in current assessments of Congo.
However, this should not be interpreted as an absence of risk. Instead, it likely reflects significant data gaps and limited reporting, pointing to a need for more comprehensive evaluation across all dimensions of children’s digital rights.
Overview themes
- Digital Access & Participation
- Digital Health & Well-Being
- Infrastructure & Capacity
- Online Safety & Protection
- Privacy & Data Protection
- Violence & Exploitation Online
The Committee’s strongest concerns focus only Infrastructure & Capacity while all other themes receive no priority
Violence and exploitation
Online sexual exploitation/CSAM and trafficking through digital platforms receives no priority, not entailing it is not an issue, but it is simply not of most importance for Congo according to the CRC.
Infrastructure and capacity
- Digitalized systems
- Cybercrime and cybersecurity laws
- Training of professionals on online offences
The findings highlight concerns related to improving data collection mechanisms, establishing confidential data-handling systems, and strengthening birth registration processes. This suggests that digitalized systems in Congo remains underdeveloped, with significant gaps in system capacity and data availability.
In contrast, cybercrime and cybersecurity laws and training of professionals on online offences are not addressed in the current data. Their absence likely reflects broader gaps in reporting and assessment, rather than a lack of importance, indicating the need for a more comprehensive evaluation of legal frameworks and professional capacity in addressing online risks for children.
Digital health and wellbeing
The data shows no evidence of concerns related to digital health and wellbeing in Congo. No subthemes, including mental health impacts, gaming or online addiction, or access to support and rehabilitation services, were addressed.
This absence of information suggests that issues related to children’s digital wellbeing receive little to no attention in the available data. Rather than indicating a lack of risk, it likely reflects significant gaps in reporting and assessment in this area.
Online safety and protection
The data shows no recorded concerns in the Online Safety & Protection theme for Congo. Subthemes such as awareness raising, safeguarding policies, and complaint mechanisms were not addressed and received no urgency scores.
This lack of attention suggests that online risks for children, including protection measures and reporting systems, are not captured in the available data. The absence likely points to gaps in monitoring and evaluation rather than an absence of challenges.
Privacy and data protection
The data indicates that privacy and data protection issues are not addressed in the available information for Congo. Areas such as data protection, surveillance and profiling, children’s digital privacy rights, and jurisdictional challenges received no urgency scores.
This suggests limited visibility into how children’s personal data is handled and protected. The absence of data highlights a need for stronger assessment and reporting in this domain.
Digital access and participation
The data shows no identified concerns related to digital access and participation in Congo. Subthemes including e-learning, digital divide and IT infrastructure, and inclusive access for vulnerable groups were not mentioned.
This absence indicates that children’s ability to access and meaningfully participate in digital environments is not captured in the current data. It likely reflects broader gaps in evaluation rather than a lack of underlying issues.
Concluding Observations CRC
- “Improve its data-collection system and ensure that it covers all areas of the Convention and of the Optional Protocols thereto, with data disaggregated by age, sex, disability, nationality, geographical location, ethnic origin and socioeconomic background, in order to facilitate analysis of the situation of all children, especially in the areas of health, violence, sexual exploitation, child labour, trafficking and child justice, and in particular children in street situations;”
- Establish a confidential national database on all cases of domestic violence against children, and undertake a comprehensive assessment of the extent, causes and nature of such violence;”
- “The Committee welcomes Decree No. 2022-308 of 13 June 2022 approving the national policy for the reform and modernization of civil status in the Congo (2022–2026), as well as the State party’s cooperation project with the African Development Bank on the implementation of a National Digital Identity System. Nevertheless, the Committee remains seriously concerned about the large number of children who are still not registered, the existence of unofficial payments attached to late birth registration, the insufficient number of civil registry offices in remote areas and the insufficient awareness of the importance of registration. It also notes with concern that the one-month limit for families to register births increases difficulties and costs for families.”
Congo
2024
Digital Child Rights Network
Are you interested to work with us on digital children’s rights in your country? Join us.