Children’s digital lives are no longer a side-issue. Games, apps, platforms and connected toys are where children learn, play, socialise and explore identity, often long before adults have a clear line of sight on what “good” looks like.

For years, the conversation has swung between two unhelpful poles: panic (“ban it”) or permission (“it’s the future”). What families, educators and responsible creators need is a third thing: a credible, practical framework for building and recognising digital experiences that support children’s wellbeing.

That is why we’re developing the Children’s Digital Wellbeing Framework (CDWF);  a cross-sector, evidence-informed approach to defining what responsible, child-centred digital design looks like. Going beyond safe-guarding, the CDWF is designed to help companies design products and digital experiences that actively promote children’s wellbeing, develop their resilience, and help them thrive in a digital world.

What is the CDWF?

The CDWF is a structured set of criteria and assessment tools designed to do three things at once:

1. Enable parents and carers to trust that accredited digital experiences are responsibly designed for children’s wellbeing.
2. Drive better industry design decisions not merely reward compliance.
3. Support regulatory preparedness, without acting as a regulator.

Just as importantly, the CDWF is built with clear boundaries. The criteria: 

• Do not claim to measure or guarantee mental health outcomes. 
• Do not assume any product works universally for all children. 
• Do not allow “benefit in one area” to offset “harm in another.” 
• Do not rely on a single type of evidence. 
• Do not assume one cultural, national, or regulatory context.

How accreditation works: baseline first, then maturity

The CDWF uses a layered model.

1) Baseline (Pass/Fail)

Baseline criteria are non-negotiable. They cover essentials such as: - Safety - Data protection, and inappropriate content. Red lines for manipulative or exploitative design.

If a product fails baseline, it will not progress further in the accreditation process, and strengths elsewhere cannot compensate.

2) Developmental maturity (Good / Better / Best)

Once baseline is met, tiered criteria recognise meaningful differences in design maturity. The goal is to reward products and teams that move beyond minimum compliance toward:

• deeper wellbeing-supportive design 
• mature organisational practices 
• real responsiveness to child voice 
• sophisticated safeguards and self-regulation

Three accreditation tracks: product, individual and organisation

Digital wellbeing isn’t only about features. It is also about how teams make decisions.

The CDWF therefore separates criteria into three tracks:

• Track A: Product / Experience: criteria assess a specific product/environment, a defined age band, and a stated version/feature set.
• Track B: Individual: criteria assess an individual’s approach, track record and credibility
• Track C Organisation / Team capability: criteria assess governance, decision-making, review/iteration practices, and maturity of child involvement.

This allows us to recognise great products and also to identify individuals and  organisations that have responsible, accountable, child-centred approaches.

How the framework is being developed

The CDWF is being built through working groups and advisory panels spanning games and interactive entertainment, TV/video/streaming, immersive media (AR/VR), publishing and EdTech, connected toys, social platforms, and scientific/ethics expertise.

You can find more details on the CDWF and who is involved here: https://fundamentallychildren.com/childrens-digital-wellbeing-framework/

Children deserve digital experiences that are not just engaging, but responsibly designed — with safeguards that respect children’s developmental needs and real-world differences.

The Children’s Digital Wellbeing Framework is our attempt to create something the field has been missing: a credible, parent-intelligible, industry-usable standard that pushes design quality upwards — without over-claiming and without turning into a regulator.

If you’d like to explore whether your organisation should help shape the framework, I’d love to have that conversation. Contact me on amanda@fundamentallychildren.com

— Dr. Amanda Gummer