RITEC is a global initiative to advance children’s well-being in digital play through game design, led by UNICEF in partnership with the LEGO Foundation, the LEGO Group, Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Games for Change.
RITEC began as a research effort to understand how digital play affects children’s well-being and which design choices matter most. This led to the creation of the RITEC-8 framework and the RITEC Design Toolbox, which provide the gaming industry with practical tools to incorporate children’s well-being into game design. Now, RITEC is embarking on a new, exciting journey in collaboration with the gaming industry to embed these into real-world practice.
Through a new Community of Practice, targeted leadership engagement with senior decision-makers across the gaming ecosystem, and practical guidance, RITEC will support designers, companies, and educators in embedding children’s well-being-by-design into everyday digital play development processes.
As part of our strategic priority to promote children’s well-being in a digital world, the Cooney Center leads the development of RITEC’s Community of Practice, bringing together industry practitioners to translate the RIT (ApEC framework into practical tools, professional learning, and industry norms that embed children’s well-being into digital play.
To learn more and to download the research reports, please visit: https://www.unicef.org/innovation/responsible-innovation-technology-children-ritec
Read more about RITEC on the blog:
- Fostering the Well-Being of Children in a Digital Era (June 2022)
- Building a Better Tech Future for Children (October 2022)
- READY, Player Two? Asking parents about their kids and video games today (October 2022)
- Building Toward Digital Well-being for Children (December 2022)
- Talking About Designing Tech for Well-Being at SXSW 2023 (March 2023)
- Identifying Opportunities to Design Equitable and Enriching Digital Experiences for All Children (April 2023)
- Designing Tech for Kids’ Well-Being at ASU+GSV 2023 (May 2023)
- Understanding Well-Being in Digital Spaces (Publication, January 2024)
- Sharing Evidence-Based Recommendations About Components of Children’s Well-Being for Game Designers (February 2024)
- Digital Safety and Well-Being at the PRIVO Children’s Digital Privacy Summit (February 2024)
- New Research from UNICEF Innocenti Tests the RITEC Framework with Kids (April 2024)
- Can Digital Games Enhance Children’s Well-being? (April 2024)
- Bringing RITEC Learnings to Life and Putting Them into Practice (July 2024)
- Celebrating Our Inaugural Well-Being by Design Fellows (July 2024)
- 2024 Well-Being by Design Fellowship Case Studies (Publication, July 2024)
- Preparing Engineers to Design the Future of Well-being in Digital Spaces (July 2024)
- “A Whole Lot Like Love”: Play Make Learn 2024 (September 2024)
- Introducing the RITEC Design Toolbox to support children’s well-being in digital play (November 2024)
- Into the Digital Future: Designing Children’s Digital Play for Well-Being with Shuli Gilutz (Podcast, November 2024)
- The 2025 WBxD Fellows Take Their Show on the Road (July 2025)
- Reimagining AI Through the Lens of Children’s Well-Being (September 2025)
- Youth and Well-Being at UNGA80 (October 2025)
- Designing Safe Online Communities to Promote Digital Thriving (December 2025)
- From Fellowship to Field: How Well-being by Design Shaped Alma in the Bronx (April 2026)
- What Makes Play Meaningful? (April 2026)
