From social media and online gaming to GenAI systems, digital environments are powerful determinants of people’s health. That is especially true of children and young people.
Around the world, childhood is being reprogrammed by digital technologies that shape how young people learn, play and connect. Our task is not to celebrate or condemn technology. It is to face a simple truth: our digital environment not only promises far-reaching benefits, but also poses grave risks for children’s health and development. Our responsibility is to maximize the first while preventing the second. It is not too late to act, but it is too late for merely incremental adjustments.
Digital tools can expand opportunity by supporting learning, communication and access to health services, especially for children in remote or crisis-affected settings. For many, online spaces also offer creativity, community and belonging, especially for those who face exclusion offline. But these benefits are not guaranteed; they depend heavily on who has access, how technologies are designed and whose interests they serve.
Governments are recognizing that protecting children online is a public-health imperative. Australia has implemented the world’s first requirement that social-media platforms prevent children under 16 from holding accounts, while France is advancing legislation to prohibit access to social media for those under 15. Indonesia has banned access for children under 16, Spain has announced plans to do so and Ireland is working with EU partners for age restrictions focused on protecting under-16s.
The UK, too, recently announced plans to ban social-media platforms from offering services to under-16s, alongside additional safeguards like restrictions on livestreaming and contacts from strangers. And Canada has introduced legislation to restrict access to social media for children under 16 while requiring stronger safety-by-design protections and accountability from platforms.
These measures reflect a growing global consensus that digital environments require effective governance, age-appropriate design and stronger safeguards to protect child health.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting this by strengthening research needed to develop a clearer understanding of the impact of technologies, offering countries technical advice and promoting safe and equitable digital health environments.
These are not neutral. How they are designed, governed and monetized shapes many aspects of our lives, not least our health.
For example, exposure to stereotyped, sexualized, violent or discriminatory content shapes how children understand themselves and the world around them. Algorithms often filter health information to increase attention rather than accuracy, thus letting misleading claims spread. The collection and use of personal data, particularly for profiling and targeted marketing, raise concerns about privacy, manipulation and well-being.
Current evidence associates excessive digital exposure with problems such as anxiety, depression, poor sleep, increased aggression and, in severe cases, suicidality, especially among vulnerable adolescents. Digital marketing may expose people to the promotion of harmful products like tobacco, alcohol and gambling platforms. Social media, gaming and AI use can deepen loneliness and displace offline relationships.
Online sexual exploitation and abuse are also increasing globally, alongside a sharp rise in child sexual abuse material, AI-generated abuse imagery and deepfake sexual or bullying content. These have profound and lasting consequences for mental health, trust and safety.
Commercial practices increase these risks. Many platforms are designed to maximize engagement, without adequate protection from exposure to harmful content or features to protect children.
Reducing exposure to illegal and graphic content is essential. But children’s well-being requires more than that. It depends on stable relationships, appropriate boundaries, physical activity and opportunities for real-world social connection. Risks multiply when digital environments disrupt—rather than support—healthy development.
GenAI is a major force multiplier in terms of risks and opportunities. Used responsibly, AI tools may support education, accessibility, and health. But their long-term impact on children’s expectations of relationships, empathy or self-regulation are unclear.
A precautionary approach is not anti-innovation but pro-child. Digital balance is part of the solution. While we require regulation, transparency, age-appropriate design, better safety features and accountability, evidence must keep pace with technology, which needs independent longitudinal research across income settings and regions.
Above all, we must listen to today’s youth. They should bring their own lived experiences to bear in order to help shape guardrails. Parents, caregivers, schools, and communities must join this conversation. We need collaboration across governments, industry, civil society and public-health institutions to maximize benefits and minimize harms.
More transparency, data sharing, health-promoting design choices and corporate support for effective safety standards are essential. The WHO can help with this.
Together, we must shape digital environments that protect and support children’s health. The choices we make now will echo for generations. ©2026/Project Syndicate
The authors are, respectively, president of France, and director-general, World Health Organization.