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 South Africa. 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 South Africa 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
Violence & Exploitation Online (18) emerges as the most pressing priority, driven by high scores for online sexual exploitation (CSAM) and trafficking and exploitation, alongside concerns related to discriminatory violence. Online Safety & Protection (12) and Infrastructure & Capacity (11) also stand out as high-priority areas, reflecting strong attention to both protective frameworks and system-level readiness.
Medium priority
Digital Access & Participation (10) receives moderate attention, with an even distribution across children with disabilities, civic participation, digital divide, e-learning, and IT infrastructure. This suggests broad recognition of access and inclusion challenges, though not strongly prioritised compared to protection and system-level issues.
Low priority
Privacy & Data Protection (0) and Digital Health & Well-being (0) are not addressed in the data, indicating gaps in attention to data governance and the wellbeing impacts of digital environments.
Overview themes
- Digital Access & Participation
- Digital Health & Well-Being
- Infrastructure & Capacity
- Online Safety & Protection
- Privacy & Data Protection
- Violence & Exploitation Online
Violence & Exploitation Online dominates the landscape, highlighting serious risks such as exploitation, trafficking, and discriminatory harm. Online Safety & Protection and Infrastructure & Capacity also receive strong attention, reflecting a focus on both safeguarding mechanisms and system development. Digital Access & Participation is acknowledged but with comparatively lower priority, despite covering a broad range of access-related challenges. In contrast, Privacy & Data Protection and Digital Health & Well-being are entirely absent, pointing to important gaps in children’s digital rights.
Violence and exploitation
- Discriminatory Violence
- Online Harrasment and Bullying
- Online sexual exploitation / CSAM
- Trafficking / exploitation through digital platforms
Violence & Exploitation Online is the most prominent theme (18), with strong emphasis on online sexual exploitation (CSAM) and trafficking and exploitation, alongside discriminatory violence. This highlights a wide range of serious risks faced by children. The distribution suggests that exploitation-related harms are the most urgent concern.
Online safety and protection
- Awareness campaigns on safe internet use
- Complaint & Reporting mechanisms
- Safeguarding policies and accountability in digital media
Online Safety & Protection receives high priority (12), with attention distributed across safeguarding policies and accountability, awareness campaigns, and complaint and reporting mechanisms. This balanced focus indicates a relatively comprehensive approach to both prevention and response. The higher emphasis on safeguarding suggests a strong focus on accountability.
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 an important gap in awareness and policy focus.
Infrastructure and capacity
Infrastructure & Capacity shows high priority (11), with strong emphasis on cybercrime and cybersecurity laws, followed by training of professionals and digitalized systems. This suggests a comprehensive approach to strengthening both legal frameworks and institutional capacity. The distribution indicates that regulatory measures are the primary concern.
Privacy and data protection
Privacy & Data Protection is not addressed (0), with no references to privacy rights, data protection, or surveillance. This indicates limited visibility into how children’s data is managed. It highlights a significant gap in policy attention.
Digital access and participation
Digital Access & Participation receives moderate attention (10), with equal focus across children with disabilities, civic participation via digital means, the digital divide, e-learning, and IT infrastructure. This indicates a broad recognition of access and inclusion challenges. However, none of these areas are strongly prioritised individually.
Concluding Observations CRC
- “Recalling its general comment No. 25 (2021) on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment, the Committee recommends that the State party continue to improve digital inclusion for children in disadvantaged situations, including children with disabilities and children in rural areas, by also implementing the National Digital and Future Skills Strategy and by means of accessible and affordable online services and connectivity and the availability of hotspots in schools, community libraries and parks.”
- “The high prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence, particularly in schools and online;”
- “To respond to all manifestations of child sexual exploitation and abuse online, including by strengthening professional capacity and software tools to detect and investigate such abuse, promoting training for parents and teachers about risks online and the risks associated with sexting, and ensuring and promoting accessible, confidential, child-friendly and effective channels for reporting all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse and encouraging children to make use thereof;”
- The Committee urges the State party to implement the recommendations by the South African Law Reform Commission in its 2022 report entitled 11 Ibid., para. 40. CRC/C/ZAF/CO/3-6 GE.24-02966 9 Sexual Offences: Pornography and Children to comprehensively criminalize all forms of sale and sexual exploitation of children as defined in articles 2 and 3 of the Optional Protocol, including all forms of sale and sexual exploitation of children online, and to recognize the acts of producing, distributing, disseminating, selling or possessing child sexual abuse material as a form of sexual exploitation and abuse.”
- “Expeditiously improve its data collection system and ensure that data collected on children’s rights 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, in order to facilitate analysis of the situation of children, particularly children who are victims of crime, children with disabilities and children in street situations;”
South Africa
2024
Digital Child Rights Network
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