Policy Report - Children's Rights in Digitalised Societies and Conflict Times: Perspectives from Southeast Asia and the Arab World
Executive Summary
In both Southeast Asia and the Arab world, children are increasingly living at the intersection of rapid digitalisation and protracted conflict. While digital technologies offer significant opportunities for education, participation, and expression, they also introduce unprecedented risks, particularly in contexts of armed conflicts.
This policy brief examines how two forces, digitalisation and conflict, are shaping, threatening, and redefining the rights of children across eight countries in two regions: Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand in Southeast Asia; and Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Sudan in the Arab world. The paper identifies key risks such as online sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, misinformation, surveillance, digital exclusion, and recruitment into armed groups. Weak legal protections, digital illiteracy, and socio-political instability exacerbate these issues. Despite commitments to international frameworks, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international, regional, and national mechanisms, these remain fragmented, under-enforced, and rarely adapted to the specific needs of children in digital and conflict-affected environments.
Drawing on field insights and youth perspectives, this policy brief proposes five strategic policy alternatives to promote child-centred and rights-based digital governance. These include harmonising national laws with international standards, fostering regional cooperation through ASEAN and the League of Arab States, building inclusive and resilient digital ecosystems, creating national digital emergency platforms, and establishing safe digital learning centres in conflict zones. The policy recommendations call for stronger legal safeguards, digital literacy education, equitable access to infrastructure, participatory policymaking, and socio-economic investment to address root vulnerabilities. Ultimately, the paper urges governments, regional bodies, civil society, and tech companies to adopt a transformative agenda that protects and empowers children, not only as digital users but also as rights-holders and agents of change in fragile and rapidly changing environments.
Executive Summary
In both Southeast Asia and the Arab world, children are increasingly living at the intersection of rapid digitalisation and protracted conflict. While digital technologies offer significant opportunities for education, participation, and expression, they also introduce unprecedented risks, particularly in contexts of armed conflicts.
This policy brief examines how two forces, digitalisation and conflict, are shaping, threatening, and redefining the rights of children across eight countries in two regions: Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand in Southeast Asia; and Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Sudan in the Arab world. The paper identifies key risks such as online sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, misinformation, surveillance, digital exclusion, and recruitment into armed groups. Weak legal protections, digital illiteracy, and socio-political instability exacerbate these issues. Despite commitments to international frameworks, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international, regional, and national mechanisms, these remain fragmented, under-enforced, and rarely adapted to the specific needs of children in digital and conflict-affected environments.
Drawing on field insights and youth perspectives, this policy brief proposes five strategic policy alternatives to promote child-centred and rights-based digital governance. These include harmonising national laws with international standards, fostering regional cooperation through ASEAN and the League of Arab States, building inclusive and resilient digital ecosystems, creating national digital emergency platforms, and establishing safe digital learning centres in conflict zones. The policy recommendations call for stronger legal safeguards, digital literacy education, equitable access to infrastructure, participatory policymaking, and socio-economic investment to address root vulnerabilities. Ultimately, the paper urges governments, regional bodies, civil society, and tech companies to adopt a transformative agenda that protects and empowers children, not only as digital users but also as rights-holders and agents of change in fragile and rapidly changing environments.