The United Nations Children’s Fund warned in an annual report that children face a bleak future in the mid-21st century as they have to face demographic shifts, worsening climate change, and rapid technological transformation that are set to intensify in the years to come.
The UNICEF report for this year projects forward to 2050 to identify three “major trends” that in addition to unpredictable conflicts, pose threats to children unless policymakers make changes.
The first is demographic change, with the number of children expected to remain similar to current figures of 2.3 billion, but they will represent a smaller share of the larger and aging global population of around 10 billion.
While the proportion of children will decline across all regions, raising concerns on their visibility and rights in societies that could be focused on aging populations. However, their numbers will explode in some of the poorest areas, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. This offers the potential to boost economic growth, but only if the new young population has access to quality education, health care, and jobs, UNICEF noted.
The second threat is climate change, where if current greenhouse gas emission trends continue, children could face eight times more heatwaves, three times more extreme flooding, and 1.7 times more wildfires in 2050 than in 2000.
New technology, particularly artificial intelligence, has the potential to power new innovation and progress, but could also widen existing inequalities between rich and poor countries. An estimated 95 percent of people in developed nations have internet access, compared to just 26 percent in the least developed nations, often due to the lack of electricity, connectivity, or devices.
Being connected also carries risks as the unchecked proliferation of new technologies poses threats to children and their personal data, making them vulnerable to online predators.
“Children of the future face many risks, but what we wanted to demonstrate is that the solutions are in the hands of today’s decision makers,” said Cecile Aptel, deputy director of UNICEF’s research division.
The children of the future will always face various risks. However, those that have been identified could and should be mitigated by policymaking that is thoughtful and with a long view, instead of the usual short term and populist mindset that our leaders can be prone to. Putting in the measures and protections from these identified risks as soon as possible will equip future children better as they make their way to the world that they inherit from today’s crop of leaders.*
