Digital children's rights in the City of The Hague

At the start of our digital children's rights program, we organized a round table discussion in collaboration with the municipality of The Hague and various organizations. On this basis, we make connections between children and young people and adults in their immediate environment, such as community centers, schools, libraries and city districts.

Based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the "UN General Comment 25", which concerns the rights of children and young people in their digital environment, we have identified ten important digital children's rights themes, such as digital access for all children and young people, safety , privacy, honesty, freedom and opportunity.

We have developed and tested a digital children's rights checklist in collaboration with the municipality of The Hague. Based on these themes with forty sub-themes, we work with young people to map out how digitally child-friendly The Hague is. We provide more insight into the status and prioritization of digital children's rights.

In our programs in The Hague we use various digital children's rights tools. Our Child Rights PLAY toolbox is based on three levels: awareness, education and participation, including guest lessons, card games, theater performances, workshops, challenges and an interactive route for outdoors.

Our digital children's rights show #VIRAL lets children and young people experience what is going on in their digital lives in a serious and humorous way. After the performance, comedians Kevin and Manon will talk to the audience. Several classes from different schools have already visited the show in theater.

We let children and young people play a mobile game "Take CTRL" during school or in their free time. This interactive route has been plotted on and around the Boulevard of The Hague in the Living Lab. This digital children's rights WALK allows participants to think about the role of technology in a smart, safe and social The Hague.

We believe it is important that we collaborate with other organizations on digital children's rights. For that reason we collaborated on a digital children's rights exhibition as part of the UN Hall in the Museon-Omniversum. It is important that we together draw attention to the digital rights of children and young people.

Our Child Rights PLAY tools, participation platform and programs fit within the citizenship and digital literacy curriculum. We focus on upper primary and secondary education and strive for more digital awareness and skills. We now work together with several schools in The Hague.

Another good example of cooperation in The Hague is with community centers. We gave our Show Me workshop to children together with their parents and caregivers. They all made a mask with the question: who are you in the digital world? Is it real or is it fake? Of course we took a selfie.

Our foundation is essentially a youth network. We train young people and give them a certificate. They are our ambassadors in The Hague! They use our tools, give guest lectures at schools in The Hague, they conduct research through our Panel and stimulate conversation between children, young people and adults within the municipality.

We provide several places in public spaces where young people can work on Challenges during school and in their free time. They work together with the municipality and social organizations. In this way we ensure more structural participation and a digitally safe and child-friendly The Hague.

Together with the Hague Social Service Time program, we provide Challenges to young people. They develop their talents, work on digital skills, meet other residents (young and old) and help make The Hague more child-friendly. We think it is important that everyone participates digitally!

In our programs we use our Child Rights PLAY participation platform (in then languages). We give children and young people the opportunity to give their opinion about their digital lives. What are their wishes, what problems do they experience, how do they want to be helped and what ideas do they have for a child-friendly digital environment in The Hague.

Ultimately, through our Panel we provide up-to-date insight into the status of digital children's rights in The Hague. We allow children and young people to share their opinions through our online Forum. We organize conversations between children, young people and adults within the municipality. Every year we publish our Digital Children's Rights Report.

Ultimately, we want to listen better and more structurally to all children and young people in The Hague. They have a right to it! It is extremely important at this time that all children and young people can develop in a safe way and seize opportunities. We really have to listen to them and give them a formal role in this!