IGF 2026 WS #129 Who Protects the First Click? Children's Digital Resilience

Description

Children’s first online experiences are happening earlier than ever, often in digital environments that were not designed with their rights, development and safety in mind. The challenge is no longer how to teach children to “be careful online”, but how to govern the digital environments in which they learn, play, communicate, consume content and build their identities. This session will examine how responsibility for children’s digital resilience should be shared between families, schools, platforms, regulators, helplines, hotlines and young people themselves. It will move beyond awareness-raising and focus on practical governance questions: child safety by design, age-appropriate services, AI-driven recommender systems, persuasive design, reporting pathways, digital literacy, harmful content, online sexual exploitation risks and public-private cooperation. Rather than viewing children only as vulnerable users, this session adopts a child-rights approach that recognizes their rights to protection, participation, privacy, information, agency, and age-appropriate support. It argues that digital resilience depends on safer design, effective education, accessible support, and accountable institutions - not on placing responsibility on children alone. The panel will bring together perspectives from the technical community, education, public health, child protection, regulation, academia, civil society, the Global South and youth representative. It will ask where responsibility should sit when children encounter harmful content, manipulative design, algorithmic amplification, disinformation, grooming risks or ineffective reporting mechanisms. The session will produce a short “First Click to Digital Resilience Action Checklist” for policymakers, platforms, educators, child protection actors and civil society. The checklist will identify practical steps that can support children from their earliest digital interactions to safe, meaningful and resilient participation online. The session will also provide an opportunity to exchange practical knowledge and experiences on responding to harmful content, particularly child sexual abuse material, drawing on the operational expertise of hotlines within the INHOPE association.

Policy Question(s)

A. How should responsibility for children’s first online experiences be shared between parents, schools, platforms, regulators, helplines, hotlines and children themselves? B. How can digital resilience be supported and measured globally, especially for younger children, vulnerable groups and countries with fewer educational, regulatory or technical resources? C. How can youth participation become a real part of digital governance, rather than a symbolic addition to child online safety debates?

Expected Outcomes

A short “First Click to Digital Resilience Action Checklist” for policymakers, platforms, educators, hotlines, helplines and civil society.
Practical recommendations on moving from awareness-raising to shared responsibility and safer digital design for different stakeholders.
A summary of youth perspective on what makes children and young people feel safe, respected and empowered online.
An exchange of practical knowledge and good practices on responding to harmful content, particularly child sexual abuse material (CSAM), drawing on the experience and operational expertise of hotlines within the INHOPE association.
A basis for further cooperation between stakeholders, including possible follow-up through IGF youth, regional or intersessional processes.

Format

Roundtable Duration (minutes): 60 Format description: The 60-minute interactive format is designed to maximize participation, collaboration, and practical outcomes. Instead of lengthy presentations, the session begins with a brief framing and a “Youth First” intervention, ensuring that young people's perspectives is a very important part of the discussion. Moderated thematic exchanges then explore governance challenges from multiple stakeholder perspectives. The room layout will encourage dialogue among speakers and participants, while the hybrid format ensures equal opportunities for onsite and online engagement. An online moderator will actively integrate remote questions throughout each discussion segment, rather than limiting online participation to the final Q&A. Live polling and collaborative online tools will enable participants to identify governance gaps and co-develop a “First Click to Digital Resilience Checklist.” The session concludes with a rapporteur summary synthesizing contributions from both onsite and online participants, resulting in practical, community-driven recommendations for child online safety and Internet governance.

Hybrid Format

Hybrid Format: 1) Interaction between onsite and online speakers and attendees

The online moderator will collect questions from the online participants and introduce them during each discussion round.
The onsite moderator will alternate between onsite and online questions.

Best possible experience for online and onsite participants

The session will use short interventions rather than long speeches.
At least one audience interaction point will be planned before the middle of the session.
Equal time will be reserved for onsite and online questions.
Online comments will be considered in the final checklist-building segment.

Complementary online tools/platforms

Live polling tool such as Slido, Mentimeter or the IGF-provided equivalent.
Shared collaborative document or board for collecting proposed actions.
Chat-based question collection through the official IGF hybrid platform. The final checklist will reflect contributions from both onsite and online participants.

Organizers

Organizer 1: Maciej Gron, 🔒 Organizer 2: Julia Piechna, NASK - National Research Institute

Speakers

Speaker 1: Awo Aidam Amenyah, Civil Society, African Group Speaker 2: Jutta Croll, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG) Speaker 3: Jannat Roshatey, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group Speaker 4: Ankita Rathi, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

Moderator

Maciej Gron, Technical Community, Eastern European Group

Online Moderator

Julia Piechna, Technical Community, Eastern European Group

Rapporteur