Emine Erdoğan calls for safe digital systems for children at UN

Emine Erdoğan, Chair of the UN Zero Waste High-Level Stakeholder Advisory Board, participated in an event titled ‘Invisible Architecture: Building Safe Digital Systems for Children – Developing International Standards and Shared Responsibility’ held on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly.

The initiative was organized under her auspices in collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of Family and Social Services, UNICEF, and the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Violence Against Children.

During her speech, Erdoğan emphasized that ensuring child safety is a collective responsibility rather than one solely for parents. She called for the creation of a healthy digital ecosystem where security is a fundamental design principle rather than an afterthought. She expressed concern that children have been reduced to target audiences whose attention and minds are exploited by designers and neuroscientists to keep them engaged with screens, stating that society must work to remove this dominance of oppressive systems over children.