Around the world, childhood is being reprogrammed by digital technologies but children and young people are not experimental subjects, a captive market, or a commodity COMMENT | EMMANUEL MACRON AND TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBRE…
The story
Around the world, childhood is being reprogrammed by digital technologies but children and young people are not experimental subjects, a captive market, or a commodity
COMMENT | EMMANUEL MACRON AND TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS | From social media and online gaming to generative AI systems, digital environments are powerful determinants of people’s health. That is especially true of children and young people. Around the world, childhood is being reprogrammed by digital technologies that shape how young people learn, play, and connect.
Details
Our task is not to celebrate or condemn technology. It is to face a simple truth: our digital environment not only promises far-reaching benefits but also poses grave risks for children’s health and development. Our responsibility is to maximize the first while preventing the second. It is not too late to act, but it is too late for merely incremental adjustments.
Digital tools can expand opportunity by supporting learning, communication, and access to health services, especially for children in remote or crisis-affected settings. For many young people, online spaces also offer creativity, community, and belonging, particularly for those facing exclusion offline.
But these benefits are not guaranteed; they depend heavily on who has access, how technologies are designed, and whose interests they serve. Governments are increasingly recognizing that protecting children online is a public-health imperative. Australia has implemented the world’s first requirement that social-media platforms prevent children under 16 from holding accounts, while France is advancing legislation to prohibit access to social media for those under 15. Indonesia has banned access for children under 1…
The United Kingdom, too, recently announced plans to ban social-media platforms from offering services to under-16s, alongside additional safeguards like restrictions on livestreaming and contacts from strangers. And Canada has introduced legislation to restrict access to social media for children under 16 while requiring stronger safety-by-design protections and accountability from platforms.
Together, these measures reflect a growing global consensus that digital environments require effective governance, age-appropriate design, and stronger safeguards to protect child health. The World Health Organization is supporting this by strengthening the research needed to develop a clearer understanding of the impact of today’s and tomorrow’s technologies, providing technical advice to countries, and promoting safe, equitable digital health environments.
Solutions are needed because digital environments are not neutral. How they are designed, governed, and monetized shapes many aspects of our lives, not least our health. For example, repeated exposure to stereotyped, sexualized, violent, or discriminatory content shapes how children understand themselves and the world around them. Algorithms increasingly filter health information to increase attention rather than accuracy, allowing misleading claims to spread. The collection and use of personal data, particularly…
Why it matters
This is a public-interest story for Uganda because it touches institutions, communities, policy decisions, or services that affect daily life. Mods99 News will continue updating the article if more verified details become available.