Designing a Safer Digital World for Kids

['Children born after 2013 are the first generation to grow up fully immersed in digital systems, which weren’t designed with them in mind. According to UNICEF, one-third of the world’s Internet users are younger than 18, yet these systems shaping their daily lives were built for adults. They were optimized for engagement and designed long before people understood how profoundly digital environments influence children.', 'For engineers and technical professionals, online safety is not an abstract policy debate.

It is a design challenge that demands rigor, systems thinking, and ethical foresight. Governments around the world are also beginning to recognize the problem. Policymakers from across Australia, Brazil, the European Union, Indonesia, and the United States are responding to risks engineers have long understood: Addictive features, inappropriate content, opaque data practices, and algorithmic systems shape user behavior in ways that their creators did not fully predict.', 'For years, technology moved faster than governance.

Now governance is trying to catch up. This global shift toward design reform is supporting national digital ambitions. In Athens this year, IEEE President and CEO Mary Ellen Randall met with senior leaders of Greek government agencies and key national research institutions.

Greece is moving quickly on digital transformation and responsible technology governance, and our discussions reinforced IEEE’s role as a trusted, neutral collaborator.', 'The European Union and the United Kingdom have been among the first to act, embedding age-appropriate digital design into their broader children’s rights agenda. Drawing on IEEE expertise and global best practices, Indonesia is the first country in Asia, and Brazil is the first country in Latin America, to adopt age-appropriate design regulation. Australia is aiming to limit access to harmful content and addictive design features through age restrictions on certain platforms.

And in the United States, in addition to federal efforts, states including California, New York, and Utah are enacting approaches including age-appropriate design principles.', 'Across these efforts, a shared realization is emerging. Protecting children online is not simply about filtering content or adding parental controls. It requires rethinking the architecture of digital systems regarding how data is collected, how algorithms make decisions, how interfaces influence attention, and how AI interacts with the developing minds of young users.

IEEE’s work in this area has become more essential. For more than a decade, IEEE has been building technical and ethical foundations for safer digital experiences.', 'The IEEE Standards Association’s (SA) Trustworthy Digital Experiences portfolio provides a practical, technically grounded framework for governments and industry. This work helps bridge the gap between engineering realities and policy ambitions.