Digital technology has reshaped how children learn, communicate, form relationships, and develop a sense of self, but the systems designed to protect and support children have not kept pace. Scotland now has an opportunity to lead by treating children’s digital wellbeing as a matter of ethics, evidence, and collective responsibility.
Four principles that should underpin how we regulate technology for children:
Radical Pragmatism:
Virtue signalling is ineffective and token bans are not enough on their own. Action must be based on what has the biggest real world effect and that may not be the easy, big-ticket policy issues and certainly won’t be those alone.
Capability Approach:
Protecting children is necessary, but insufficient The goal is to support healthy development, not simply to prevent the worst outcomes. It isn’t about making the current environment less bad for children but making it positive and constructive.
Algorithmic Ethics:
If a system cannot be shown to be safe, it should not be deployed. With children there must be transparency in what they are being shown, how they are being directed – and why
Precautionary Principle:
Where evidence is incomplete but credible risk exists, the burden of proof lies with the developers, not children or parents.