Report reveals the dire problems children will face in 2050

What problems will children in the 2050s face? This was the question that the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) answered in a new report sounding the alarm on the dangers that children will be exposed to in the coming decades.

The UNICEF report identified three main problematic risks children will face in the coming decades, which include the climate crisis, exposure to, or lack of access to new technologies, and changes in global demographics.

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“Children are experiencing a myriad of crises, from climate shocks to online dangers, and these are set to intensify in the years to come,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a press release on the organization’s website.

“The projections in this report demonstrate that the decisions world leaders make today – or fail to make – define the world children will inherit. Creating a better future in 2050 requires more than just imagination, it requires action. Decades of progress, particularly for girls, are under threat.” the Russell continued.

One of the bigger issues children are facing is that the number of children is growing rapidly in some regions of the world. Population projections cited by UNICEF indicated that sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are expected to have the largest number of children by the 2050s.

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However, the share of children in the overall population is declining due to population aging and falling birth rates, something that poses its own set of challenges for the world.

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In East Asia and Western Europe, the population is expected to fall below 17%. This is important because children represented 29% and 20% of the population in each region in the 2000s according to UNICEF.

Whether it is services for the elderly population or, on the contrary, the services needed to support a growing population of children, the demographic transition will be one of the main challenges facing states in the coming decades and will disproportionally affect children.

The UNICEF report also notes that only 26% of people in low-income countries have access to the internet, due to lack of access to electricity, an internet connection, a telephone, or a computer — compared to 95% of people in high-income countries, another issue that will starkly affect some children as they grow up in a teleologically disadvantage region.

"To be unconnected in a digital world is to be deprived of opportunities in the present and in the future," UNICEF warned.

"Failure to remove barriers for children in low-connectivity countries, especially for those living in the poorest households, means letting an already disadvantaged generation fall even further behind," UNICEF added.

The UNICEF report went on to point out the difficulty young people have in poorer countries in acquiring digital skills "will impact their ability to effectively and responsibly use digital tools in education and future workplaces."

Finally, the UNICEF report cautioned that the unguarded use of new technologies could expose children to online predators and would also present risks to their personal data.

UNICEF has made projections, which were cited by Radio-Canada, on the exposure of children to extreme climate risks if the current trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions is not modified.

Under current projections, approximately eight times more children will be exposed to heat waves in 2050 compared to 2000. 3.1 times more will be exposed to extreme floods and 1.7 times more to fires, UNICEF noted.

Despite the risks it highlights, the UNICEF report also cites some good news, such as the increasing life expectancy children living today and in the future will enjoy, as well as a reduction in the inequalities between boys and girls throughout the world.

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Furthermore, access to primary education is expected to improve as well, 96% of children are expected to attend primary school in the 2050s, which is a great improvement on the 80% that did so in the 2000s.

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