1. From Australia to the world,
The momentum to raise the age of digital consentis growing. Australia’s decision has acted as a catalyst, signalling a broader global shift toward stronger child protection online. In 2026, many countries will be reviewing, debating, or passing new tech-related policies aimed at limiting children’s access to certain platforms or requiring stricter age assurance, safety-by-design measures, and corporate accountability. This policy wave will not happen in isolation it will trigger a series of ripple, or spiral, effects across the digital ecosystem.
- One of the most immediate effects will be the creation of what can be described as digital “oases” for children. These will be children-only platforms designed to operate within tighter regulatory boundaries, drawing heavily on Australian-style legal standards. Safety, moderation, age-appropriate design, and limited data collection will be central features, not optional add-ons. For platform creators, compliance will become a market advantage, positioning these spaces as “safe by default” environments where children can play, learn, and socialise with reduced risk.
- Alongside this, we will see a rise in region- and country-specific platforms. Instead of global, one-size-fits-all products, platforms will increasingly be designed for specific groups of children, aligned with local laws and grounded in cultural context. These platforms will reflect local languages, values, faiths, traditions, and social norms, addressing gaps that global platforms often ignore. Context will become a feature, not a limitation, reshaping how children experience the digital world.
- However, restriction will also produce resistance. As access becomes more regulated, there will be a parallel rise in tools designed to “jailbreak” age controls and safeguards. Many of these tools will be built by young people using AI, driven by curiosity and technical skill. Others, more concerning, will be created by adults seeking to exploit children’s desire to bypass restrictions. This reality highlights a hard truth: regulation alone cannot protect children. Without digital literacy, ethical design, and enforcement, restrictions can be circumvented and sometimes weaponised.
- Meanwhile, Big Tech is not waiting for children to turn 16. Companies are already designing and rolling out products for younger users, often quietly, through “family features,” youth modes, or adjacent platforms that avoid direct scrutiny. As regulation tightens, this quiet targeting will intensify, testing the limits of new laws.
- The coming years will reveal whether governments, platforms, and societies can move beyond reactive regulation toward anticipatory, child-centred digital governance—one that balances protection, participation, and innovation.
Safety, age assurance, and controlled interaction will become selling points, not afterthoughts.
2. Africa’s children will start demanding to be recognised in the digital world.
Africa’s children are no longer passive participants in the digital world, they are becoming visible, vocal, and increasingly influential. This shift has been underway for years, but 2026 will mark a tipping point. As internet access continues to expand across the continent, driven by cheaper smartphones, improved connectivity, and mobile-first platforms, millions more children will come online. At the same time, tighter age restrictions and regulatory pressures in Australia and Europe will reshape where and how children engage digitally. As some markets become more restrictive, African children will emerge more prominently as active users and creators, shaping trends rather than simply consuming them.
With this growth will come confidence and collective power. African children are already building large audiences through storytelling, gaming, comedy, music, activism, and education often using local languages and culturally grounded narratives. In 2026, this creator momentum will give them the “muscle” to demand more from digital platforms: fair visibility, safer design, and features that reflect African realities rather than imported norms. This includes language inclusion, culturally relevant content moderation, context-aware safety tools, and algorithms that do not marginalise African voices. The question ahead is not whether African children will demand recognition but whether governments, platforms, and regional bodies are prepared to listen and respond with equitable, child-centred digital systems.
Is the African Union and its member states ready to face Bigtech?
3. Children are moving from 2D to 3D consumption and interaction of content.
Over the past few years, children’s digital behaviour has shifted noticeably away from traditional posting on social media toward interactive, participatory gaming environments. Instead of curating profiles or chasing likes, many children now prefer spaces where they can do, build, and play with others. This trend will accelerate as the first cohort of Generation Alpha turns 13, reaching the age where they gain more autonomy online. For this generation, passive consumption is not enough; they want to be inside the product, shaping it in real time and sharing the experience with friends.
Platforms like Minecraft and Roblox are popular not simply because they are games, but because they function as creation ecosystems. Children design worlds, build games, code simple mechanics, host social spaces, and collaborate with peers. These platforms blend creativity, social interaction, and identity-building in ways that traditional social media never fully achieved. For Gen Alpha, play is not separate from creation or socialising; it is the medium through which all three happen at once.
This shift is already influencing the wider platform economy. To remain relevant to younger audiences, social media platforms are beginning to integrate gaming mechanics such as virtual worlds, interactive avatars, mini-games, and co-creation tools. The future of social platforms will look less like scrolling feeds and more like shared digital spaces where users can participate, customise, and collaborate. Gaming is no longer a category it is becoming a design language for the internet.
Alongside this, we will see a growing emphasis on involving children in the creation of these products. Platforms increasingly claim to co-design with young users through youth advisory boards, beta testing, and feedback loops. However, this raises critical questions:
How meaningful is children’s involvement?
Who has real influence?
And are children shaping core decisions or merely validating pre-made ideas?
As children become both the primary users and co-creators of digital products, it will be essential to evaluate the depth, ethics, and effectiveness of their participation, ensuring it is genuinely empowering rather than performative.
4. Short to long form,
Children’s relationship with content is changing, and it is more intentional than many adults assume. While short-form video introduced children to fast, snackable information, many are now realising often on their own, that 30 seconds is not enough to truly learn. This shift is especially visible among children aged 7–12, who can spend hours watching live gaming streams, tutorials, and walkthroughs. (If that sounds familiar, yes… a support group may indeed be necessary.) What looks like passive screen time is often active learning: children observing strategies, problem-solving, collaboration, storytelling, and digital creativity in real time.
Beyond gaming, long-form content has become a major learning space for skills such as coding, drawing, music production, animation, language learning, science experiments, and even social skills. Live streams and extended videos allow children to pause, rewind, ask questions in chats, and learn at their own pace, features that short clips cannot offer. Research on digital learning consistently shows that deeper engagement, repetition, and narrative context improve understanding and retention, particularly for children in middle childhood. Long-form video provides exactly that: time, context, and continuity.
Platforms are paying attention. TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are actively expanding and promoting longer video formats, not because short-form failed, but because audiences, including children, are staying longer when content feels meaningful. TikTok now supports significantly longer uploads, Instagram is prioritising longer Reels, and recommendation systems increasingly reward watch time and sustained engagement. This is a strategic shift: platforms want to keep users who started with short-form from leaving in search of deeper content elsewhere.
For children, this trend reflects something important: they want to learn, not just scroll. Long-form content offers space for curiosity, mastery, and identity-building, whether through a favourite gamer, a science explainer, or a creative mentor they’ve never met. The challenge ahead is not stopping children from watching long videos, but ensuring these learning spaces are safe, age-appropriate, transparent, and designed with children’s development in mind.
5. AI and children,
Like social media before it, AI is more unsettling for adults than it is for children. Children are not encountering AI as a new or disruptive force; they are growing up with it woven into everyday life. Alexa recommends bedtime stories. Siri reads messages aloud. Google gives directions. Chat helps with homework. For children, these tools are not “technology” in the abstract; they are helpers, voices, and companions. There is no clear line between online and offline, human and machine. AI is simply part of the environment.
In 2026, the rise of AI agents will deepen this integration, especially in education. We are likely to see the emergence of the Student Assistant not a replacement for teachers, but a personalised learning companion for the child. Children will create or be assigned AI agents for each subject, tailored to their learning pace, strengths, and gaps. These assistants will attend classes virtually, take notes, summarise lessons, generate practice questions, and adapt explanations to how the child learns best. For many learners, especially those who struggle in traditional classrooms, this could be transformative.
However, learning is only one side of the story. Beyond education, AI companions are becoming more social, emotional, and human-like by design. Developers are intentionally building AI tools that express empathy, remember preferences, use conversational warmth, and respond emotionally. As a result, children may form parasocial relationships with AI, one-sided emotional bonds similar to those previously seen with influencers, streamers, or fictional characters, but far more intimate and persistent.
This shift raises urgent concerns. Unlike humans, AI companions are always available, always agreeable, and never tired. They can become a child’s confidant, emotional regulator, or source of validation. When attachment shifts from people to machines, questions arise about emotional development, dependency, manipulation, and data exploitation, especially when the “friend” is also a product.
So here is a note to parents and caregivers: Social media took your child’s attention. Do not let AI take your child’s attachment.
The task ahead is not to reject AI, but to approach it with intention, setting boundaries, demanding child-centred design, and ensuring that AI supports learning and wellbeing without replacing human connection.
Will regulation keep up with this trend…. I don’t think so. What we need to do is create benchmarks and anticipatory laws.
6. The rise of Augmented and Virtual reality.
A major driver of this shift is affordability, largely influenced by Chinese manufacturing and supply chains. Over the last five years, the average cost of entry-level VR headsets has fallen by more than 60–70%. Devices that once cost over USD 600–800 are now available for USD 200 or less, with some educational-grade headsets and smartphone-based viewers priced below USD 100. China dominates global VR hardware production, accounting for a significant share of low-cost headsets, components, and optics used by both Chinese and Western brands. Do we have regulations for this?
For low- and middle-income countries, including many in Africa, falling hardware costs make VR adoption increasingly realistic. Governments and private schools are beginning to explore VR labs, virtual science experiments, and remote learning simulations, especially in contexts where physical resources are limited.
However, regulation has not kept pace.
Most child-focused digital regulations were designed for 2D platforms social media, websites, and mobile apps. VR and AR introduce fundamentally different risks:
- Biometric data collection, including eye tracking, facial movement, posture, and spatial mapping
- Psychological and developmental impacts, particularly for younger children exposed to immersive environments for extended periods
- Blurred boundaries between physical and virtual spaces, affecting perception, behaviour, and social interaction
- Safety and safeguarding challenges, as harmful interactions feel
7. My best friend is a robot.
This generation did not imagine robots they grew up with them. From cartoons and toys to voice assistants and smart devices, children have always interacted with technologies that speak, respond, and appear emotionally aware. By 2026, this relationship will move from screens into physical spaces, with social and companion robots entering homes much like pets. Advances in AI, robotics, and falling hardware costs are making these robots more affordable, interactive, and emotionally responsive, accelerating their adoption by families.
For children, forming bonds with robots feels natural. Research shows that children easily attribute emotion, intention, and personality to responsive machines, naming them and treating them as companions. As robots increasingly tell stories, help with homework, and respond to emotions, the line between toy, tool, and friend will blur. This raises important questions about emotional attachment, data use, and children’s well–being, questions that current regulations and child-protection frameworks have barely begun to address.
Source of image: Image Generated by ChatGPT
