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Monitor Iraq

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 2025 Concluding Observations on Iraq. The priority 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 Iraq faces its greatest challenges. If a country gets a low priority 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 urgency

Violence and Exploitation Online emerges as the most urgent digital child rights concern for Iraq. The high cumulative urgency score indicates serious and repeated concerns by the Committee, particularly in relation to online sexual exploitation and other forms of digital violence affecting children. This suggests significant protection gaps and an urgent need for stronger legal, preventive, and enforcement measures in the digital environment.

Medium Urgency

Online Safety and Protection and Infrastructure & Capacity fall into the medium-urgency category. These areas point to ongoing concerns regarding the safety of digital spaces, regulatory frameworks, and the state’s capacity to effectively monitor and respond to online risks. While not framed as the most critical issues, the repeated medium-urgency references show that structural improvements and sustained attention are required.

Low urgency

Digital Access & Participation and Digital Health & Well-being show relatively low urgency levels in the dataset. This suggests that, compared to protection and exploitation issues, access-related and well-being concerns receive less emphasis in the Committee’s observations on Iraq. However, their presence indicates emerging areas that may require greater attention as digital engagement increases. Privacy & Data Protection had no mention at all. 

Overview themes

  1. Digital Access & Participation
  2. Digital Health & Well-Being
  3. Infrastructure & Capacity
  4. Online Safety & Protection
  5. Privacy & Data Protection
  6. Violence & Exploitation Online

Digital child rights concerns in Iraq are primarily concentrated on violence and exploitation online, which the Committee identifies as the most urgent issue. Online safety and protection, together with infrastructure and capacity, receive moderate attention, reflecting ongoing challenges in ensuring safe and well-regulated digital environments. Issues related to digital access and participation are mentioned less frequently, suggesting that access concerns are present but not yet a central focus. Digital health and well-being and privacy & data protection receive the least emphasis, indicating that these issues remain emerging rather than prioritized in the current assessment.

Violence and exploitation

  1. Discriminatory violence
  2. Online harassment and bullying
  3. Online sexual exploitation / CSAM
  4. Trafficking & exploitation

Violence and exploitation online in Iraq is dominated by concerns related to online sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse material (CSAM), which accounts for the highest urgency score. Trafficking and exploitation, as well as discriminatory violence, are also highlighted as serious risks, indicating structural protection gaps in the digital environment. Online harassment receives little to no emphasis in the Committee’s observations, suggesting that peer-to-peer harms are less visible or less systematically addressed. Overall, the findings point to a strong focus on severe forms of online abuse, while broader everyday online harms receive limited attention.

Online safety & protection

  1. Awareness campaigns on safe internet use
  2. Complaint & Reporting mechanisms
  3. Safeguarding policies and accountability in digital media

Online safety and protection in Iraq is mainly addressed through concerns related to complaint and reporting mechanisms, which carry the highest cumulative urgency score. This indicates that while mechanisms exist or are discussed, the Committee sees a need for stronger or more effective systems for reporting online harm. Safeguarding policies and accountability in digital media receive some attention, suggesting emerging but still limited regulatory frameworks for platform responsibility. Awareness campaigns on safe internet use receive little to no emphasis, indicating that preventive and educational measures are not yet a priority in the Committee’s assessment.

Digital health and wellbeing

Digital health and well-being receives very limited attention in the Committee’s observations on Iraq. Only support and rehabilitation services are mentioned with a moderate level of urgency, indicating concern for assistance to children already affected by digital harms. Issues such as gaming or online addiction and broader mental health impacts are not emphasized, suggesting that preventive and well-being-focused digital health concerns remain underdeveloped in the current assessment.

Infrastructure and capacity

Infrastructure and capacity-related digital child rights issues in Iraq receive limited but focused attention. Cybercrime and cybersecurity laws, as well as the development of digitalised systems, are addressed with moderate urgency, indicating concern about the state’s legal and technical capacity to respond to digital risks. In contrast, training of professionals is not emphasized, suggesting a gap in attention to capacity-building for those responsible for protecting children in the digital environment.

Privacy and data protection

Privacy and data protection do not feature in the Committee’s observations on Iraq in relation to the digital environment. The absence of references suggests that issues such as children’s digital privacy, data protection, and online surveillance are not yet systematically addressed in the current reporting cycle. This gap may indicate either limited regulatory focus or insufficient visibility of privacy-related risks affecting children online.

Digital access and participation

Digital access and participation issues in Iraq receive limited but focused attention in the Committee’s observations. Moderate urgency is assigned to the digital divide and access to e-learning, indicating concerns about unequal access to online education opportunities. Other aspects, such as IT infrastructure, civic participation via digital means, and access for children with disabilities, are not emphasized, suggesting these areas remain underdeveloped in the current assessment.

Concluding Observations CRC

  1. “Recalling its general comment No. 25 (2021) on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment, the Committee recommends that the State Party adopt the draft cybercrime law and ensure that it adequately protects children from harmful content and materials and online risks and provides for mechanisms to prosecute violations.”
  2. “…concerned… The high prevalence of sexual exploitation of children, particularly girls, including online;”
  3. “To ensure that all children who are victims or witnesses of violence or sexual abuse or exploitation, including online, have prompt access to child-friendly, gender-sensitive, multisectoral and comprehensive interventions, services and support, including forensic interviews and psychological therapy, with the aim of preventing the secondary victimization of children;”
  4. “To take all measures necessary to change attitudes that discriminate against girls who have become victims of sale of children, sexual exploitation of children in prostitution and child sexual abuse material, including online.”
  5. “Put in place child-sensitive mechanisms to facilitate and promote the reporting of cases and ensure that complaints mechanisms are child friendly and available both online and offline, paying particular attention to alternative care settings, detention facilities and locations for refugee and internally displaced children; “
  6. “Strengthen alternative education pathways and provide digital, flexible, open learning opportunities, as well as non-formal education programmes, allowing increased enrolment of out-of-school children and retention of children in pre-primary, primary and secondary education, especially among girls, learners affected by conflict and displacement, students with special needs and students from poor backgrounds;”
  7. “Ensure sustainable funding for the maintenance, updating and enhancement of the National Child Data Portal;”

Iraq
2025

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