DREAM: Educating Future App Developers with a Child Rights Approach

Existing research on children's digital content has predominantly examined apps from the perspective of young users, parents, and industry stakeholders. These studies identify criteria for ''good'' apps—safety, educational value, user experience—but overlook a fundamental question: who do develop these apps, and how are they trained ? This poster presents DREAM (Digital Resilience, Education, and Awareness for Minors), a 24-month EU CERV project addressing this gap through a child rights lens. DREAM develops two-tiered guidelines for secondary school (14-18 years) and University (19-24 years) students as future ICT professionals. Through comparative gap analysis across four countries (Italy, Greece, Poland, Ukraine), surveys of 400 students and 40 educators, and validation workshops involving 160 professionals, the project aims to embed Protection, Participation, and Provision principles into app development education.