World Children's Day 2025: Educators demand more rights for children!

World Children's Day 2025: Educators demand more rights for children!

On September 20, 2025, Germany celebrates World Children's Day, a day that is all about children and their love of discovery. At the integrative daycare center in Hofgeismar, educators Renate Grimm and Ulrike Köller-Schmidt have been working with the youngest generation for many years and have interesting insights into today's children and their challenges. Köller-Schmidt, who has been working at the facility for 45 years and has been deputy manager for two years, and Grimm, who ran Haus Am Anger until her retirement last year, are aware of the changes that digitalization brings with it.

The two educators emphasize the importance of personal contacts in the educational process. “Digitalization has significantly changed the registration processes,” says Köller-Schmidt. These often take place without personal exchange. They also report that today's children are shaped by their media consumption. “It is crucial to find the right dosage of media use and at the same time offer the children lots of outdoor activities,” adds Grimm.

Challenges and prejudices

Both teachers emphasize how curious and receptive the children are. But at the same time, the profession of educator is associated with challenges. Frequent illnesses among children and colleagues do not always make everyday life easy. “It requires a lot of empathy when dealing with the children and their families,” say the two. They also openly address the prejudices associated with the profession of educator, such as the assumption that educators “do nothing.”

In kindergarten, children not only learn to play, but also to be independent. The situation of the playgrounds and youth work in Hofgeismar are highlighted positively, although the teachers criticize the facilities in Liebenau. Around 400 municipalities in Germany make their contribution to World Children's Day by organizing celebrations and discussions about child-friendliness.

The digital world for children

In view of increasing digitalization, a study by the Federal Center for Child and Youth Media Protection (BzKJ) is also important. This shows that there is a need for optimization in the child-friendly design of digital offerings. The study, which was carried out by the Digital Opportunities Foundation, examines the use of digital offerings by children aged 6 to 13. It sheds light on the fact that many offerings for children do not sufficiently take developing skills and usage behavior into account, which often leads to excessive demands for younger children and unappealing content for older ones. Children use both offers that are specifically designed for them and those that are not intended for them.

Jutta Croll, Chairwoman of the Digital Opportunities Foundation, calls for a further development of the offering landscape that better focuses on the protection, empowerment and belonging needs of children. It remains to be hoped that the theme will be further strengthened at this year's World Children's Day under the motto "Into the future with children's rights" and that digital rights and needs of the young generation will be highlighted.

As the BzKJ also notes, the current digital offerings hardly do justice to children's right to digital participation. There are few digital applications that promote interaction and communication among children. With the “Mobile First” principle, the child-friendly design of digital offerings does not seem to have been fully implemented yet. Developments in the digital world are a challenge that must be overcome in order to enable today's children to participate in digital offerings.

World Children's Day is therefore not only an occasion to celebrate, but also an important signal for politics and society to focus on the rights and needs of children.

For further information on the challenges and the digital world for children, the focus is on the work of the BzKJ. This is committed to protecting and promoting children's digital skills and improving their social participation. Read more about this on bzkj.de and about the experiences in Hofgeismar hna.de.