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Monitor Madagascar

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 2022 Concluding Observations on Madagscar. 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 Madagascar 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

Digital Access & Participation (19) clearly stands out as the most urgent theme, driven by concerns related to the digital divide, e-learning, and IT infrastructure, all receiving the highest individual scores. These findings highlight significant barriers to equitable access and meaningful participation in digital environments for children.

Medium priority

Infrastructure & Capacity (6) and Violence & Exploitation Online (3) receive moderate attention. The focus on digitalized systems and cybercrime laws suggests ongoing structural and regulatory challenges, while concerns around online sexual exploitation (CSAM) point to emerging protection risks.

Low priority

Online Safety & Protection (2) and Privacy & Data Protection (2) receive limited attention, with some recognition of safeguarding policies and children’s privacy rights. Digital Health & Well-being (0) is not addressed, indicating a lack of focus on mental health and wellbeing in digital contexts.

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 Access & Participation dominates the landscape, highlighting major challenges related to access, infrastructure, and inclusion. Infrastructure & Capacity and Violence & Exploitation Online receive moderate attention, reflecting a focus on both system development and protection risks. Online Safety & Protection and Privacy & Data Protection are acknowledged but remain underdeveloped. In contrast, Digital Health & Well-being is entirely absent, pointing to a significant gap in addressing the broader impacts of digital environments on children.

Digital Access and participation

  1. IT Infrastructure
  2. Digital Divide
  3. E-learning
  4. Access for children with disabilities
  5. Civic participation via digital means

Digital Access & Participation
Digital Access & Participation is the most prominent theme (19), with strong emphasis on the digital divide, e-learning, and IT infrastructure, all receiving the highest urgency scores. Additional concerns include civic participation via digital means and access for children with disabilities, though with lower urgency. This suggests significant structural barriers to inclusive access and participation, while also indicating some recognition of broader inclusion challenges.

Infrastructure and capacity

  1. Cybercrime and cybersecurity laws
  2. Digitalized systems
  3. Training of professionals on online offences

Infrastructure & Capacity receives moderate attention (6), with a focus on digitalized systems and cybercrime and cybersecurity laws. These findings point to ongoing challenges in both system development and regulatory frameworks. The absence of references to training of professionals suggests limited attention to capacity-building efforts.

Digital health and wellbeing

Digital Health & Well-being is not addressed in the data (0), with no references to mental health, screen time, or support services. This absence suggests that the impact of digital environments on children’s wellbeing is not currently considered. It points to a significant gap in both awareness and reporting.

Online safety and protection

Online Safety & Protection shows limited urgency (2), with attention given only to safeguarding policies and accountability in digital media. Other areas, such as complaint mechanisms and awareness campaigns, are not addressed. This indicates that while some protective frameworks are recognised, a comprehensive approach to online safety is lacking.

Privacy and data protection

Privacy & Data Protection receives limited attention (2), focused solely on children’s digital privacy rights. Other important areas, including data protection practices, surveillance, and AI, are not mentioned. This suggests a narrow focus and limited visibility into broader data governance issues.

Violence and exploitation online

Violence & Exploitation Online receives moderate attention (3), driven entirely by concerns related to online sexual exploitation and CSAM. This highlights serious protection risks for children. However, the absence of other forms of harm, such as harassment or trafficking, suggests incomplete coverage of online risks.

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 enact laws on access to information and the digital environment that adequately protect children from harmful content and materials and online risks and provide for mechanisms to prosecute violations. The State party should develop regulations and safeguarding policies for the media and the digital environment to protect the privacy of children, including by ensuring access for children to information and media adapted to their needs and allowing them to channel their ideas.”
  2. “The Committee is seriously concerned about the reports that the sexual exploitation of children is widespread and tolerated, especially in touristic destinations, in the State party. The Committee is also concerned about the reports of online child sexual abuse.”
  3. “The Committee is seriously concerned about the reports that the sexual exploitation of children is widespread and tolerated, especially in touristic destinations, in the State party. The Committee is also concerned about the reports of online child sexual abuse.”
  4. “Address inequalities generated by the necessity for home schooling during the COVID-19 crisis, including by ensuring the availability of electricity and Internet access for all to access online education, giving particular attention to children in rural areas and children with disabilities.”
  5. “Further strengthen its data-collection system, including by providing adequate resources for the National Statistics Institute to carry out its work, implementing the national strategy for the development of statistics and adopting decrees to implement its statistics legislation;”
  6. “Ensure that data are collected on children’s rights for all areas covered by the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto, with data disaggregated by age, sex, disability, geographical location, ethnic and national origin and socioeconomic background, in order to facilitate the analysis of the situation of children, in particular those in situations of vulnerability;”

Madagascar
2022

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