Background

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Imagine your company is about to launch a new tech product. But beneath the glossy pitch deck, hidden risks could put children in danger, reinforce gender bias, or enable exploitation. Would you spot them before it’s too late?

 

Children are among the most overlooked stakeholders in business decision-making, yet they are disproportionately affected by modern slavery, gender inequality, and unsafe technologies. As digital systems and tech-driven products rapidly reshape supply chains and consumer markets, hidden risks emerge, from exploitative labour practices in production to online harms reinforced by biased design. Without a deliberate child-rights and gender-sensitive lens, businesses can unintentionally entrench vulnerability and miss critical safeguards. 

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In this fast-moving, interactive workshop, participants work in groups and step into the shoes of decision-makers for the launch of a fictional tech product available for use by diverse sectors, ranging from agriculture to retail to digital platforms. As the product moves through different stages of development, mapped against the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, participants vote on whether to greenlight or halt its launch based on the information provided. 

 

As the room progresses through each stage, facilitators from ECPAT International and Anti-Slavery Australia will unpack the real-world consequences of their choices and share tools to help businesses embed child rights, address modern slavery risks, and dismantle harmful gender norms from the outset. The guided discussion draws from the combined expertise of Anti-Slavery Australia and ECPAT International in mainstreaming child rights across different sectors and working to prevent and respond to the specific vulnerabilities children face in contexts of slavery and exploitation. 

 

The session will close with a reflection activity that turns insights into clear next steps, leaving participants with both awareness and practical actions to take forward.

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Key Objectives

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• Recognise and understand how children in Asia-Pacific are uniquely affected by modern slavery, exploitation, and harmful gender norms in digital environments — and why standard human rights due diligence often misses these risks.

• Identify and assess the access barriers and safety risks children face in tech-driven products, services, and supply chains, particularly around participation and remedy.

• Apply a child-rights and gender-sensitive lens to business decision-making across product design, content creation, moderation, reporting, and supply chain oversight, drawing on the UNGPs and Children’s Rights and Business Principles.

• Practice and apply solutions by spotting risks in realistic scenarios, exploring safeguards, reviewing good practice examples, and leaving with a practical toolkit to integrate a rights-based approach into their own work.

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Guiding Questions

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• What specific risks or blind spots can emerge in relation to children when businesses develop or deploy tech-driven products, services, or systems?

• How can companies apply a child-rights and gender-sensitive lens at every stage of business decision-making, from design to remedy?

• What practical safeguards, partnerships, or policies can prevent a product from being used to exploit or harm children?

• From a child-rights and gender-sensitive perspective, what wider changes in business practice, safeguards, and partnerships are needed to make technology and supply chains safer, more inclusive, and free from exploitation?

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Format

• Interactive, gamified workshop

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Session Partners