Develop products that are age appropriate by design and consider using age assurance
Age-appropriate products and services depend on children’s developmental milestones and life circumstances. Innovators must consider the role of parents and caregivers, states and businesses in realising children’s rights to provision, participation and protection in accordance with the child’s evolving capacities and the gradual acquisition of autonomy.
This principle draws together two central issues in children’s rights:
The concept of the child’s evolving capacities recognises the gradual process through which children acquire greater competencies and understanding, along with the necessary transfer of responsibility for decision making from the parents or caregivers to the child.
The obligations of the state include providing support and guidance to parents and caregivers so that they can protect their children’s rights. In a digital world, parental responsibilities include mediating the use and and impact of technologies, and the state – and businesses – play a key role in supporting this.
Relevant legal frameworks and guidance
The principle of ‘age appropriate’ is interpreted and implemented in various ways, depending on the context. For example, the UK Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC) prescribes 15 legally binding standards to make data processing appropriate for children of different ages. The notion of age-appropriate digital innovation in the IEEE Standard for an Age Appropriate Digital Services Framework is based on the 5Rights Principles for Children:
Recognising child users and meeting their needs and diversity
Upholding children’s rights
A child-centred approach to data use
Moderation and redress
Presenting published terms in age-appropriate formats
This standard emphasises the protection and provision aspects of children’s rights in relation to the digital environment.
“My mum and dad only really think about games that are appropriate for me if they’re appropriate for kids. I think that I should have some choice in what’s appropriate for me. Also, once my mum gave me a game that was appropriate for my age, and it thought it was really, really boring
Child aged 7-8, Greater London
Design cases
In design contexts, age appropriateness reflects the child rights’ concept of evolving capacity. It manifests strongly in relation to design for play and learning:
Encourage curiosity, and consider children’s evolving capabilities based on age and development, personalities, skills and interests.
In child–computer interaction (CCI), child development theories inform the notion of age-appropriate computing and interactive systems based on usability and impact on a child. However, age-appropriate digital innovation goes beyond safety features or ensuring usability for specific age groups. An age-appropriate experience will facilitate children’s experiences of all kinds – easier participation, learning and wellbeing, for instance.
Digital innovators need to recognise the complexities of the transition from childhood to adulthood. These vary considerably across individuals and circumstances, and this very transition can increase children’s vulnerabilities, risking infringement of their rights.
“When you’re younger, you don’t understand what’s meant to mean something. Like maybe someone said something, and you’re not sure what it’s meant to mean, so you go along with it. But as you get older, you understand more stuff.”
Child aged 12-13, Essex
This may mean having in place age-assurance mechanisms or age gating to prevent access or usage by underage users of high-
risk products or services. Designers and developers need to test the effectiveness of their age-assurance and gating mechanisms against unintended uses and protect children’s privacy and other rights. To determine what age-assurance mechanism is appropriate for your product or service, refer to 5Rights Foundation’s assessment of different age-assurance technologies.
“I believe that age restrictions should become harder to bypass as I see many young children below the age of 12. You should look into higher censorship as there have been many events in the past of extremely gruesome clips: a guy shooting himself, a guy getting hit… and children playing with guns.”
Child aged 12-13, Essex
“All ages should be protected, not just certain ages.”
Child aged 13-14, Yorkshire
To embed children’s rights to provision, protection, participation and parental guidance according to children’s evolving capacities, age-appropriate innovation means prioritising features, functionality, content and business models that are compatible with children’s evolving capacities and agency (see Principle 11). Recognising children’s and adolescents’ vulnerabilities, age- appropriate products and services should not put children’s wellbeing, privacy or other rights at risk, but offer children opportunities for growth and development in ways compatible with their various developmental require
