Children's Rights

The Council of Europe protects and promotes the human rights of everyone, including children. Based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Convention on Human Rights and other legal standards, the Council of Europe promotes and protects the rights of 150 million children in Europe.

Children’s rights in the digital environment

The digital environment creates both opportunities and risks for children’s well-being and enjoyment of their human rights. Children, and those around them, need to be given the skills to navigate this environment safely and to use it to their full advantage. Meanwhile, comprehensive and child-rights sensitive measures are required at all levels.

The Council of Europe Guidelines to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of the child in the digital environment (CM/Rec(2018)7) seek to put children, and their rights, firmly on the digital map. It provides holistic and comprehensive guidance to member states on maximising the full range of children’s rights in the digital environment. It calls on member states to ensure that business enterprises are meeting their responsibilities to children, and for engagement with all stakeholders, including children.

The next steps for the Council of Europe will be to finalise a Handbook for policy-makers, which will provide concrete measures on how to implement the Guidelines. A child-friendly version of the Guidelines is also being prepared.

The Council of Europe also has Conventions on Cybercrime; Data Protection; and Child Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse. Further relevant tools include: Guidelines for human rights online; the Internet literacy Handbook; the Digital Citizenship Education Handbook; Parenting in the digital age, and a Digital Citizenship…and your child brochure.

More about our work on this topic.