DIGITAL
CHILDHOOD ETHICS
CHARTER

Take joint responsibility for the safety of children in the digital environment.

Recognize the critical role of the family an institution responsible for child-rearing, physical and psychological well-being, development as an individual, and instilling the values and morals children follow online and offline.

Promote dialogue and create an atmosphere of trust and mutual support across all the stages at which children interact with the digital environment. Understand that families and educational institutions are best placed to identify the problems children face online at an early stage as well as involve and work with parents, teachers, and relevant specialists to look for solutions and help children facing those problems.

Create a safe digital environment for children.

Promote equal, non-discriminatory access for all children to the benefits and opportunities provided by digital technologies.

Teach children to use technology creatively and responsibly for education, entertainment, the development of their creative skills, and so on.

Eliminate or minimize the destructive impact of technology on the cognitive abilities and emotional development of children.

Promote the socialization of children in the digital environment, foster polite and respectful online communication for children among themselves and with adults.

Help educate children on how to follow common moral and ethical rules of behavior, live out guiding values, and refrain from violence, harassment, and hate online and offline.

Develop critical thinking as well as teach children how to responsibly handle the information available online.

Form in children a conscious attitude toward their online behavior, their digital footprint, and their potential personal and professional consequences.

Teach children how to handle personal information (about themselves, family, and friends) carefully and raise awareness of the dangers and limitations involved in disseminating it as well as inform them of the technical tools available for preventing accidental data leaks and malicious activity (privacy settings, antivirus programs, and so on).

Inform children of the opportunities and dangers present online in addition to giving them ways to protect themselves and get help in case of cyberbullying, trolling, other forms of destructive online behavior, or otherwise finding themselves in a dangerous situation.

Strive to keep children from immersing themselves too deeply in the online environment, something that affects personality development, including by maintaining a healthy balance between online and offline communication, building self-control, learning how to set priorities, and understanding how to independently distribute their time between online- and offline- activities, study, and recreation.

Stay in contact with children, listen to and work with feedback from them when discussing innovations or making decisions concerning how they interact with the digital environment.

Promote digital literacy and other digital skills among children by encouraging achievements and providing support to those who need it.

Foster mutual understanding and trust in the virtual environment, bridging the digital gap between children and parents.

Promote the development of public and private institutions providing qualified assistance to children in trouble, be that online or offline.

Participate in interdisciplinary projects designed to create and develop a safe digital environment for children.

Promote the development of self-regulation mechanisms as well as important social projects protecting children in the digital environment.

Help develop and build on principles and norms protecting the rights of children in the new digital world.

Take steps to keep children from accessing services and content that legally should not be available to them and/or may harm their health and well-being. To this end, develop and utilize appropriate policies, community rules, and technical solutions.

Employ, teach the use of, and/or make accessible to all categories of users technical and other tools for the protection of children in the online space.

Build an environment and/or digital solutions that realize the creative potential and learning needs of children online and offline.

Create and distribute enlightening and educational positive content.

Inform children, teachers, and parents of the opportunities and risks inherent in the online space, fostering digital literacy.

Offer users convenient and user-friendly mechanisms for feedback and reporting problems.

The parties implement the provisions of the Charter exhaustively and holistically in accordance with their core competencies and the particular nature of their work.

All parties to the Charter are voluntary. By joining the Charter, the parties voluntarily agree to follow its principles and rules of conduct for digital childhood ethics.

In order to join the Charter, potential parties send a statement of intent to the Alliance for the Protection of Children in the Digital Environment (hereinafter referred to as the Alliance) orally or in writing via the Alliance's website, sign the Charter, and inform the contact person for further interaction and coordination.

The Alliance maintains a Register of parties to the Charter who have joined and are fulfilling its provisions. The Register is maintained publicly on the Alliance's website.

The Alliance regularly organizes events dedicated to the implementation of the Charter and invites the parties to it to exchange best practices and solutions for its implementation.