The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has introduced the RITEC Design Toolbox (RDT), a free and comprehensive resource offering practical guidance for the gaming industry on creating digital play experiences prioritizing children's well-being.

What is the intent behind the RITEC Design Toolbox?

The goal behind the RDT is for design professionals in the online gaming industry who are creating digital play experiences for children. This includes different design professions (product, visual, UX, research, etc.), management levels, and Trust and Safety professionals supporting the design process.

It consists of four components in the following order:

1. FAQs:Answers to all your questions.
2. Summary for Executives:A business case for designing for children’s well-being.
3. Infographic Posters:The “RITEC-8 Framework” and the “RITEC Play World”.
4. Interactive Card Deck:Game design features that our research suggests can promote well-being in digital play (available in desktop and mobile compatible versions).

The UNICEF-led research project highlighted that if designed well, digital games can contribute to and support children's well-being. The project is a collaboration between UNICEF and the LEGO Group and is funded by the LEGO Foundation. 

Research 

UNICEF conducted research involving over 750 children, primarily aged 8 to 12, from 18 countries to examine how children perceive and evaluate their digital play experiences. The study also explored how these experiences influence their sense of well-being and whether their current lives feel positive and fulfilling or negative and challenging. The research introduced the RITEC-8 framework, which outlines eight dimensions of children's subjective well-being that digital games can potentially support: autonomy, competence, emotions, relationships, creativity, identities, safety and security, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Experts’ opinion

Ida Hyllested, UNICEF Senior Advisor on Child Rights and Business said: “The research led by UNICEF shows that digital play experiences can support children’s well-being, if they are designed right. The RITEC Design Toolbox can make it easier for game designers to implement the findings of this research into their work and to design play experiences that place children’s well-being at the centre.” 

Anna Rafferty, Senior Vice President of Digital Consumer Engagement, the LEGO Group said: “While the online world offers endless possibilities for children, we understand that it can also raise concerns for parents. In an era where children are increasingly engaging with digital technologies, the need for robust guidelines to support their well-being has never been more important. We know that the digital games industry is grappling with the challenges of understanding how best to design digital technology so that it fosters children’s well-being. We remain committed to creating safe and enriching digital environments for children and are pleased that the RITEC Design Toolbox is freely available to everyone. We’re calling on gaming companies and businesses to make this a priority when creating digital play experiences.” 

RITEC is an international, multi-stakeholder and cross-sectoral collaboration that includes partners from the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University, the CREATE Lab at New York University, the Graduate Center at City University of New York, the University of Sheffield, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center.