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Children face significant consumer risks when surfing online, related to, inter alia, embedded advertisements and privacy-invasive practices, as well as the exploitation of their incredulity and inexperience resulting in overspending or online fraudulent transactions. Behind the fun and playful activities available for children online lie complex revenue models, creating value for companies by feeding children’s data into algorithms and self-learning models to profile them and offer personalised advertising or by nudging children to buy or try to win in-app items to advance in the games they play. In this article we argue that specific measures against these forms of economic exploitation of children in the digital world are urgently needed. We focus on three types of exploitative practices that may have a significant impact on the well-being and rights of children – profiling and automated decision-making, commercialisation of play, and digital child labour. For each type, we explain what the practice entails, situate the practice within the existing legislative and children’s rights framework and identify concerns in relation to those rights.

Digital technologies have reshaped children's lives, resulting in new opportunities for and risks to their well-being and rights. This chapter investigates the impact of digital technologies on children's rights through the lens of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Up until now, not all rights have received the same level of attention in the digital context. Legal and policy discourse in the area of children and digital media predominantly focuses on 'protection' rights, albeit with a growing awareness of the tension between 'protection' and 'participation' rights. 'Provision' rights are not often emphasised, other than in the important domain of education. However, all children's rights should be supported, valued and developed in both online and offline spheres of engagement. Governments, parents, educators, industry, civil society and children's rights commissioners or ombudspersons should all take up their responsibility to enhance children's rights in relation to digital technologies, while actively listening and taking account of children's views when developing laws, policies, programmes and other measures in this field.

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