Amnesty International reported on Monday that international failure to ensure children’s online safety from Big Tech harms is connected to a lack of youth perspectives in policy-making spaces. Classifying existing solutions as performative, the organization pointed out that increasing surveillance, data tracking, and censorship is a major threat to their safety.
Children face “risks such as cyberbullying, grooming, online violence, and problematic social media use” while their data is “constantly collected, tracked and shared” by “a largely invisible network of government and private actors, in most cases without free and informed consent.” In a recent brief, the UN attributed these issues to technology companies that are financially incentivized to maximize revenue. These companies profit from tailoring content to users’ emotional vulnerabilities and related habits. Children are uniquely susceptible to these activities. Specifically, “algorithmic and AI systems can keep young users hooked, trapping them in harmful, never ending content loops and exposing them to increasingly extreme material, including self-harm and suicide content, pornography, extremism and violence.” Furthermore, data is tracked outside of social media in schools and universities, which collect biometric attendance data and leverage AI-enabled performance metrics.
Many countries have addressed social media concerns by instituting bans for underaged children. Turkey requires platforms to establish age-verification systems and restrict age-inappropriate content access. Australia declared Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X, YouTube, Kick and Reddit to be age-restricted platforms inaccessible to children under the age of sixteen. Other countries that have enacted similar bans include Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Various countries are strongly considering such a ban, including Britain, Denmark, Greece, New Zealand, and Norway, while others have implemented safeguards such as parental consent.
The tendency of these bans to raise privacy issues aligns with the accusation that they suffer from lack of youth input. For example, age-verification technologies often request a copy of a government ID, face scans, or third-party entity data. It can lead to an environment of users routinely sharing biographic information and allowing for privacy infringement.
Furthermore, the Amnesty article points out the contradiction of implementing these bans alongside a push for increasing use of AI in education. For example, the Coalition for Children’s Rights and Protection in the Age of Artificial Intelligence launched in July 2026 without input from “a single child.” The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child invites comments from a select group of children that doesn’t amount to meaningful participation. Additionally, some governments have used children’s digital footprints to censor and repress youth movements, such as internet shutdowns in Delhi and cyber-intimidation in Kenya.
In the face of various lawsuits regarding children’s privacy concerns, multiple organizations are actively working at the forefront to amplify their voices. ctrl+alt+reclaim published a manifesto for young people to “reclaim [the] digital world.” FlippGen endeavors to “speak directly to younger children, parents, educators and policymakers, bringing a perspective that is relevant, positive and credible.” The 5rights Foundation compiles youth attitudes in quotes and essays, one of which characterizes the dual challenge of addressing children’s privacy rights: “We want to be on the internet to learn and share, but we are not ready for the adult world.”
