Digital Safeguarding for Migrating and Displaced Children - An Overview of the Current Context, Trends, Risks and Practical Next Steps

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many millions of people around the world online and accelerated the pace and uptake of technological innovation in unforeseen ways.

Innovations in data and technology offer opportunities for positive and transformative change in our sector. Our humanitarian and development programmes increasingly rely on the internet, data and new technologies to reach more people and assist vulnerable and geographically dispersed populations, including displaced children on the move.

And those displaced people are using technology to keep themselves informed, access information and communicate – with each other, with authorities and with us as development actors.

Now, more than ever, we are using digital technologies to conduct lessons for children, using apps to gather data for our health programmes and developing software for case management and registration.

However, with technical innovation comes ethical dilemmas and increased threats to the safety and wellbeing of children. Migrant and refugee children are among the most vulnerable groups susceptible to these threats.

The new report from Save the Children’s Migration and Displacement Initiative, Digital Safeguarding for Migrating and Displaced Children, describes the digital safeguarding risks and current digital safeguarding practices alongside clear recommendations and practical next steps.