About the Activity
As stated in the Introduction of IEEE 2089-2021:
“Organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the need to treat children as a separate user group to support their engagement in the digital world. Children and their parents and responsible adults have established rights, and specific vulnerabilities associated with their age which require special consideration. Organizations make decisions and take actions that affect not just their financial bottom line, but also the rights and needs of children and young people.”
We consider it essential to work towards the creation of a digital society that has the best interests of young people at its core, respecting their rights and evolving capacity as human beings. This activity would support organizations to create digital services that align with this mission and do not cause undue harm to the well-being of children.
The introduction of concrete ethical principles that may easily be adhered to and endorsed by industry participants enables IEEE to be an important resource providing vital tools and support to industry participants in developing their technologies in a manner that benefits humanity, as is part of IEEE’s mission.
Related work:
IEEE Standard for an Age Appropriate Digital Services Framework Based on the 5Rights Principles for Children
Goals of the Activity
Creation of a short, simple, and easily applied set of ethics principles for engineers to use when designing digital experiences for children, based on principles taken informatively from the IEEE 2089 standard(s). The goal is to have something that organizations can use as a starting point when considering children’s rights and well-being in digital spaces, insofar as they can align their engineering practices to the ethical principles, or that they have an organization-wide commitment to adhere to them.
This activity is motivated by the proposed participants’ collective intention to support and develop a digital world in which the human rights of children are respected and upheld.
Getting Involved
Who Should Get Involved
Types of organizations: human rights charity groups, technology companies (involved in the design of digital services for children), child advocacy groups, computer engineering membership bodies, academics involved in child rights and/or technology ethics.
How to Get Involved
To learn more about the program and how to join, please express your interest by completing the Ethical Principles for Engineering Digital Services for Children interest form.