The RITEC Community of Practice is now officially open for those passionate about designing children’s digital play with well-being in mind
We are excited to announce the official launch of the RITEC Community of Practice.
We have been listening to game designers, product leads, trust & safety professionals, researchers and other experts in children and digital games over the past year to shape a community dedicated to supporting practitioners in applying the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) framework, research and tools to their work, with the goal of embedding children’s well-being in digital play.
That listening took many forms, including interviews, two co-design sessions, and pilot meetings both online and in person. To everyone who contributed to this process: thank you.
What we heard overwhelmingly was a desire for connection. Those making playful digital experiences for children wanted a supportive, playful community where they could practice putting RITEC and designing for well-being into practice, together.
We are now officially ready to welcome those interested in joining our community. You don’t need to have used RITEC before, and you don’t need to arrive with answers. In fact, we hope the RITEC Community of Practice will be a place where members bring their questions and challenges to discuss and work on together.
The essentials
What is the RITEC Community?
Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) is a global initiative led by UNICEF in partnership with the LEGO Foundation, the LEGO Group, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Games for Change to advance children’s well-being in digital play through game design.
RITEC began as a research effort to understand how digital play affects children’s well-being and which design choices matter most. This work led to the creation of the RITEC-8 framework and the RITEC Design Toolbox, providing practical guidance for designing digital play for children’s well-being.
In its new three-year phase, RITEC is shifting from research and tools to applied industry practice, supporting the gaming ecosystem to embed children’s well-being-by-design into digital play. This phase includes the development of a Community of Practice, led and facilitated day-to-day by the Cooney Center.
The RITEC Community of Practice is a global group of designers and developers working to center children’s well-being within digital play. This member-driven community meets regularly online and once a year in person. To join an event, you must be a member. Membership is free.
Who the community is for
- The community is built for designers, product leads, and trust & safety professionals working on digital games for children ages 8–12.
- The community is open to practitioners in adjacent fields (learning games, museums, edtech) and anyone building general-audience games that children play widely.
How to join
- Check out the website and complete the registration form here.
- Once you have registered and been approved by the Community organizers, you will receive onboarding resources, an invitation to join the RITEC Community of Practice Slack channel, and invitations to upcoming events.
Learn more about the RITEC Community of Practice here: cooneycenter.org/joinritec
Learn more about RITEC and sign up for the newsletter here.
