Children's Rights in the Digital Space

The rapid expansion of social media has sparked growing concern about safeguarding children's rights online. This study examines TikTok's impact on minors, with a focus on data privacy, consent, and exposure to inappropriate content. Using a custom dataset—TikTok-YouthEngage2024—comprising 5,000 public short videos, interaction data, and anonymized metadata sorted by age group, we evaluated compliance with children's digital rights. A Legal-Ethical Compliance Scoring (LECS) method was developed, integrating NLP, image analysis, and policy-alignment tools to assess content against key articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Results show that 28.4% of the content may breach standards related to data use or age-inappropriate exposure, while 15.7% of interactions suggest algorithmic targeting misaligned with children's developmental needs. Only 41.2% of videos involving minors showed signs of informed consent. These findings highlight the pressing need for stronger regulation and ethical design to protect young users online.