Children are not simply smaller adults navigating a neutral digital landscape.
They are developing minds and identities, shaped by the environments we design.

Digital experiences do not just entertain.
They influence attention, emotion, relationships, learning, identity and values.
Design choices matter.

For too long, the conversation has centred on harm reduction. Safety is essential, but it is not sufficient.

Children deserve digital experiences that do more than avoid damage.
They deserve experiences intentionally designed to build resilience — the capacity to think critically, regulate emotion, form healthy relationships, persist through challenge and participate responsibly in a digital society.

The Children’s Digital Wellbeing Framework establishes a clear expectation:

First, meet the legal and ethical floor.
Comply with local law. Protect privacy. Avoid exploitative commercial design. Build in safety by default.

Then go further.

Design for development.
Align with children’s cognitive, social and emotional stages.
Provide agency with guardrails.
Support emotional regulation rather than manipulate it.
Encourage curiosity and effort rather than shortcut thinking.
Promote cooperation and belonging rather than comparison and status anxiety.
Respect time and attention rather than compete for them.

Resilience is not built through restriction alone.
It is built through carefully scaffolded opportunity.

This framework recognises that digital experiences vary.
A streaming platform is not a multiplayer game.
An AI tutor is not a social network.
Expectations must adapt to activity and age.

Younger children require stronger guardrails.
Adolescents require increasing autonomy,  but never abandonment.

The goal is not to eliminate risk entirely.
It is to design environments in which challenge strengthens rather than undermines.

This framework is voluntary.
It is open access.
It is globally adaptable.
It is grounded in children’s rights and developmental science.

It offers industry a clear alternative to reactive regulation:
demonstrate responsibility before it is imposed.

Digital design is never neutral.
Every metric chosen signals what is valued.
If engagement and revenue are the only measures of success, children will absorb that priority.

We can choose differently.

We can design digital systems that help children thrive — cognitively, socially, emotionally and ethically.

The Children’s Digital Wellbeing Framework sets the standard