IEEE President’s Note: Designing a Safer Digital World for Kids

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/person-wearing-a-scarf-over-a-dark-sweater-with-a-blue-background.png?id=65004859&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C119%2C0%2C120"/><br/><br/><p>Children born after 2013 are the first generation to grow up fully immersed in digital systems, which weren’t designed with them in mind. One‑third of the world’s Internet users are younger than 18, according to <a href="https://www.unicef.org/northmacedonia/press-releases/more-175000-children-go-online-first-time-every-day-tapping-great-opportunities" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UNICEF</a>, 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><h2>Global Shift Toward Design Reform</h2><h3>Supporting National Digital Ambitions</h3><br/><img alt="Three men in suit jackets smiling and posing with a middle-aged woman." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f7581428b6630311e33e124d134e7463" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="cfc58" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/three-men-in-suit-jackets-smiling-and-posing-with-a-middle-aged-woman.png?id=66836634&width=980"/><p>In Athens this year I met with senior leaders of Greek government agencies and key national research institutions. Greece is moving quickly on <a href="https://digitalstrategy.gov.gr/en/" target="_blank">digital transformation</a> and responsible technology governance, and our discussions reinforced IEEE’s role as a trusted, neutral collaborator.</p><p>We focused on supporting Greece’s ambitions in digital modernization and public‑sector innovation. We also discussed responsible AI and age-appropriate digital design in Europe and elsewhere. These engagements, <span>grounded in shared values and long‑term commitment, strengthened IEEE’s presence within the European ecosystem and opened new pathways for <span>collaboration on trustworthy AI and child‑focused digital well‑being.</span></span></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Engineers and technical professionals understand that design choices are never neutral. They encode values, incentives, and assumptions. When the user is a child, those choices carry greater weight.</p><p>This is where IEEE’s work becomes more essential.</p><h2> Protecting Children Online</h2><p>For more than a decade, IEEE has been building technical and ethical foundations for safer digital experiences. The first IEEE standard on age-appropriate design in 2021 marked a turning point. It offers a structured, principled approach to designing with children’s rights in mind. <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/" target="_self"><em><em>The Institute</em></em></a>’s 2022 article “<a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-standard-protecting-kids-online" target="_self">Use a New IEEE Standard to Design a Safer Digital World for Kids</a>” highlights how the standard helps translate those principles into engineering practice.</p><p>Today the <a href="https://standards.ieee.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Standards Association</a>’s (SA) <a href="https://standards.ieee.org/initiatives/trustworthy-digital-experiences/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trustworthy Digital Experiences</a> portfolio provides a practical, technically grounded framework for governments and industry. Spanning ethical design, data governance, algorithmic transparency, and child‑focused digital well‑being, it has already initiated discussions with government stakeholders around the world. This work helps bridge the gap between engineering realities and policy ambitions.</p><p>No single country can solve these challenges alone. Many policymakers lack access to the combined expertise in technology, governance, and children’s rights needed to act quickly and effectively. This collaborative effort helps close that gap.</p><p>The stakes are high. Without coordinated action, public policy will continue to lag behind technology, leaving children exposed to risks that could have been mitigated through thoughtful design. But with the right frameworks, governments can ensure digital systems respect children’s rights, support healthy development, and promote well‑being.</p><p>IEEE’s emerging standards and collaborative technology policy work offer a path forward. By grounding national efforts in evidence‑based, rights-aligned design principles, IEEE is helping governments move from reactive regulation to proactive, coherent, and globally informed strategies for protecting children online.</p><p>Safeguarding childhood in the digital age is both a moral imperative and an engineering challenge. And IEEE is helping to lead the way.</p><p>—Mary Ellen Randall</p><p>IEEE president and CEO</p><p>Please share your thoughts with me: <a href="mailto:president@ieee.org">president@ieee.org</a>.</p><p><em>This article appears in the June 2026 print issue.</em></p> Reference: https://ift.tt/tkFCgmi