The proliferation of digital technologies dramatically impacts the way children and youth across the world play, learn, work, interact, communicate, explore, and access information and services. As technology becomes increasingly accessible across global majority contexts and in remote and impoverished parts of the world, more children and youth—including those from historically marginalized communities—are joining the online community and expanding their social, educational, entertainment, and informational horizons. But greater access to these digital spaces also increases the risk of exposing children and youth to harm in both the digital and physical world. 

The Protecting Children and Youth from Digital Harm (PCYDH) Five Year Roadmap builds on the USAID PCYDH Primer. It provides details of specific approaches and programmatic priorities that USAID will undertake over the next five years. The Agency will draw upon existing internal and external strategies, policies, and programs to develop a collaborative, multi-stakeholder, and targeted approach to protecting children and youth from digital harm. 

The PCYDH Roadmap includes two mutually reinforcing pillars of USAID’s work over the next five years. The first pillar focuses on internal knowledge and capacity building across the Agency and the second pillar focuses on external PCYDH programming.