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 Senegal. 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 Senegal 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 (11) emerges as the most pressing priority, driven primarily by digitalized systems, alongside attention to cybercrime and cybersecurity laws and limited focus on training of professionals. This highlights key gaps in both digital infrastructure and institutional capacity.
Medium Urgency
Online Safety & Protection (3) receives moderate attention, with a focus on safeguarding policies and accountability in digital media. This suggests some recognition of protective frameworks, though other elements such as awareness and reporting mechanisms are not addressed.
Low urgency
Digital Access & Participation (2) and Privacy & Data Protection (2) receive limited attention, focusing respectively on civic participation via digital means and children’s digital privacy rights. Violence & Exploitation Online (0) and Digital Health & Well-being (0) are not addressed, indicating significant gaps in these areas.
Overview themes
- Digital Access & Participation
- Digital Health & Well-Being
- Infrastructure & Capacity
- Online Safety & Protection
- Privacy & Data Protection
- Violence & Exploitation Online
Infrastructure & Capacity dominates the landscape, highlighting key challenges in digital systems and regulatory frameworks. Online Safety & Protection receives moderate attention, focused mainly on safeguarding and accountability. Digital Access & Participation and Privacy & Data Protection are acknowledged but remain limited in scope. In contrast, Violence & Exploitation Online and Digital Health & Well-being are entirely absent, pointing to major gaps in addressing risks and wellbeing.
Online Safety and protection
- Awareness campaigns on safe internet use
- Complaint & Reporting mechanisms
- Safeguarding policies and accountability in digital media
Online Safety & Protection shows moderate priority (3), with attention focused solely on safeguarding policies and accountability in digital media. This indicates some development of protective frameworks. However, the absence of awareness campaigns and reporting mechanisms suggests incomplete protection systems.
Infrastructure and capacity
- Cybercrime and cybersecurity laws
- Digitalized systems
- Training of professionals on online offences
Infrastructure & Capacity is the most prominent theme (11), with strong emphasis on digitalized systems, followed by cybercrime and cybersecurity laws and minimal attention to training of professionals. This indicates significant gaps in both technical systems and regulatory frameworks. The distribution suggests system development is the primary concern.
Digital health and wellbeing
Digital Health & Well-being is not addressed (0), with no references to mental health, screen time, or support services. This indicates that children’s digital wellbeing is not currently prioritised. It highlights a significant gap in awareness and policy attention.
Violence and exploitation online
Violence & Exploitation Online is not addressed (0), with no mention of risks such as harassment, exploitation, or trafficking. This absence suggests that online harms are not captured in the available data. It likely reflects gaps in assessment rather than a lack of underlying issues.
Privacy and data protection
Privacy & Data Protection receives limited attention (2), focused only on children’s digital privacy rights. Other areas, such as data protection practices, surveillance, and AI, are not addressed. This suggests a narrow and underdeveloped approach to data governance.
Digital access and participation
Digital Access & Participation receives limited attention (2), focused solely on civic participation via digital means. This suggests some recognition of children’s engagement in digital spaces. However, the absence of other areas such as digital divide, infrastructure, and inclusion indicates a narrow scope.
Concluding Observations CRC
- ” Ensure that laws on access to information and the digital environment, including the federal data protection law, ensure respect for children’s right to privacy, protect children from harmful content and materials and online risks and provide for mechanisms to prosecute violations;”
- “Enhance the digital literacy and skills of children, teachers and families and protect children from information and material harmful to their well-being.”
- “Concerned about weak and uncoordinated data collection and the lack of control of the information system on violence against children and recalling its general comment No. 5 (2003) on general measures of implementation of the Convention, the Committee recommends that the State party:”
- “Ensure that the data-collection system covers all areas of the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto, with data disaggregated by age, sex, disability, geographical location, ethnic and national origin and socioeconomic background, including violence against boys;”
- “To establish a confidential national database on all cases of violence against children and undertake a comprehensive assessment of the extent, causes and nature of such violence;”
Senegal
2024
Digital Child Rights Network
Are you interested to work with us on digital children’s rights in your country? Join us.