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Monitor The Netherlands

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 the Netherlands. 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 The Netherlands 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

Priority

High urgency issues are most prominent in Infrastructure & Capacity (31) and Violence & Exploitation Online (26). This indicates that the Committee places strong emphasis on structural readiness, including digital systems and institutional capacity, as well as persistent risks related to online abuse, exploitation, and trafficking affecting children.

Priority

Medium urgency concerns are reflected in Online Safety & Protection (14) and Privacy & Data Protection (5). While these areas receive consistent attention, the urgency level suggests that safeguards, platform accountability, and data protection frameworks exist but still show notable gaps that require further strengthening.ding data handling, surveillance, and protection of children’s digital privacy.

Priority

Low urgency themes include Digital Health & Well-Being (4) and Digital Access & Participation (2). These topics are mentioned less frequently and with lower urgency, implying that issues such as screen time, mental health impacts, and inclusive digital participation are not currently prioritised as pressing concerns in the Committee’s assessment of the Netherlands.

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

Overall, The Netherlands’ Concluding Observations show a strong focus on structural and systemic aspects of digital child rights, particularly infrastructure, capacity-building, and enforcement mechanisms. Violence and exploitation online emerge as a major area of concern, highlighting ongoing risks related to online sexual exploitation, abuse, and trafficking through digital platforms. Online safety and data protection receive moderate attention, suggesting that while regulatory frameworks are in place, further improvements are needed to ensure effective protection and accountability. In contrast, digital access, participation, and digital well-being receive comparatively limited emphasis, indicating that these areas are not currently viewed as the most urgent digital child rights challenges in the Netherlands.

Violence and exploitation

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

Violence and exploitation online receive high overall urgency (26) in The Netherlands, indicating that the Committee views these risks as a major digital child rights concern. Online sexual exploitation and CSAM (13) stand out as the most urgent subtheme, reflecting persistent and serious risks related to the creation, distribution, and circulation of abusive material. Trafficking and exploitation through digital platforms (5) also receive notable attention, highlighting how online environments facilitate recruitment and exploitation of children. In comparison, online harassment and bullying (4) and discriminatory violence (4) are addressed with moderate urgency, suggesting recognition of harm but comparatively less emphasis than exploitation-related risks., online harassment and bullying and discriminatory violence receive comparatively less attention, suggesting they are acknowledged but framed as less pressing than severe forms of sexual exploitation.

Infrastructure and capacity

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

Infrastructure and capacity receive a very high overall urgency score (31), making this the most emphasized digital child rights theme in the dataset. Cybercrime and cybersecurity laws (25) dominate the theme, indicating that the Committee places strong emphasis on strengthening legal frameworks to address online offences affecting children. Training of professionals on online offences (4) receives moderate attention, suggesting recognition of capacity gaps among law enforcement, judiciary, and other relevant actors. In contrast, digitalised systems (2) receive comparatively limited urgency, implying that while digital infrastructure is acknowledged, regulatory and enforcement capacity are viewed as more pressing priorities.

Digital health and wellbeing

Digital health and well-being receives limited attention, with references mainly focused on online/gaming addiction and screen time, while broader mental health impacts remain largely unaddressed. The low urgency score suggests that these issues are not treated as a central concern in the Committee’s observations. This may indicate an assumption that existing health systems sufficiently cover digital well-being, despite growing evidence of digital-related mental health risks for children.

Online safety and protection

Safeguarding policies in digital media receive moderate emphasis, indicating that protective frameworks and accountability measures are present but still require strengthening. Awareness-raising campaigns and complaint and reporting mechanisms are mentioned to a lesser extent, suggesting uneven implementation or accessibility. Overall, the data points to a need for more child-friendly, visible, and effective safeguarding and reporting structures in digital environments.

Privacy and data protection

Children’s digital privacy rights and extraterritorial justice receive some attention, while data protection, surveillance, profiling, and artificial intelligence are minimally addressed. This uneven focus suggests that traditional privacy concerns are acknowledged, but newer and more complex digital risks remain underexplored. The low urgency attributed to AI and data practices may reflect regulatory confidence at the national level, despite their growing relevance to children’s rights.

Digital access and participation

Digital access and participation receive very limited emphasis, with only civic participation via digital means registering any urgency. Issues such as the digital divide, IT infrastructure, e-learning, and access for children with disabilities are largely absent from the data. This suggests that equal and inclusive digital participation is not currently highlighted as a priority concern in the Committee’s assessment.

Concluding Observations CRC

  1. “Ensure that all municipalities have a child-friendly anti-discrimination service where children can easily report cases of discrimination, and mechanisms to respond effectively and in a child-sensitive manner.”
  2. … ensuring that national legal and policy frameworks adequately cover all manifestations of the sale and sexual exploitation of children committed or facilitated through information and communications technologies;”
  3. “The Committee notes the existence of the National Youth Monitor and the measures taken by Statistics Netherlands to improve its data-collection system.”
  4. “… conducting online-specific analyses, research and monitoring to better understand online offences and develop appropriate responses …”
  5. “Allocate sufficient human, technical and financial resources for the implementation of the Safety at School Act and ensure that measures aimed at combating bullying in schools, including online bullying, encompass prevention, early detection mechanisms, the empowerment of children and professionals, intervention protocols, awareness-raising on its harmful effects, and harmonized guidelines for the collection of case-related data.”
  6. “… ensuring that Internet service providers control, block and promptly remove online sexual abuse material.”
  7. “The Committee is concerned about the large quantity of online sexual abuse material hosted on servers in the State party.”
  8. “Prevent and address the online sale of children for the purpose of sexual exploitation and abuse …”
  9. “The Committee is concerned about the high prevalence of violence against children, including sexual exploitation and online violence, in the State party, and the lack of legislative measures to protect children from abuse, domestic violence and corporal punishment in Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius.”
  10. “Ensure the effective investigation of and intervention in all cases of violence against children, including neglect and sexual abuse, in and outside the home, and in the digital environment, especially cases involving sexual exploitation, cyberaggression and grooming;”
  11. “Develop a national strategy for preventing and addressing gaming disorders, and ensure that adolescents with gaming disorders or other forms of online addiction receive the necessary help and support… “
  12. “However, it is concerned that: The law still permits DNA samples to be taken from children who have been sentenced to prison, detention in a youth custody centre or community service of 40 hours or more, and the storage of the DNA profiles in a database;”
  13. “Further develop regulations and safeguarding policies to protect the rights and safety of children in the digital environment;”
  14. “While welcoming the various efforts undertaken by the State party to protect the rights of children in the context of digital media, and with reference to its general comment No. 25 (2021) on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment, the Committee recommends that the State party…”
  15. “Ensure that laws on access to information and the digital environment respect children’s right to ƒ, protect children from harmful content and materials and online risks, and provide for effective mechanisms to prosecute perpetrators, including in the context of extraterritorial jurisdiction…”
  16. “Prevent and address the online sale of children for the purpose of sexual exploitation and abuse …”
  17. “Ensure that all municipalities have developed strategies or action plans for preventing and combating trafficking in children, including for online sexual exploitation and their criminal exploitation by “lover boys”.”
  18. “integrating online offences and digital tools into the mandatory training of law enforcement officials, lawyers, the judiciary and other relevant professionals.”

The Netherlands
2022

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