Protect a Generation Report - The Invisible Impact of COVID-19 on Child Rights

An estimated 99% of children worldwide – or more than 2.3 billion children – live in one of the 186 countries that have implemented some form of restrictions due to COVID-19. Although children are not at a high risk of direct harm from the virus, they are disproportionately affected by its hidden impacts.

The most marginalised and deprived children have been hit the hardest, and existing inequalities have been exacerbated. Progress that had been made against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for children is at risk of being disrupted, or even lost. For many children, the impacts of the pandemic will be catastrophic.

Save the Children carried out a global survey of children and their parents or caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic, to find out the impact that the pandemic is having on their access to healthcare, their education, their family finances and their safety, and to hear from children themselves on these topics. The survey is the largest and most comprehensive survey of children and families during the COVID-19 crisis to date. The research was implemented in 46 countries and results in the largest and most comprehensive survey of children and families during the COVID-19 crisis to date, with 31,683 parents and caregivers and 13,477 children aged between 11-17 years old participating.

The research sampled three distinct population groups: Save the Children program participants with telephone numbers or email addresses, specific population groups of interest to Save the Children, and the general public. This report is one in a series presenting findings from the Global COVID-19 Research. The results presented in this report focus on quantitative data from our representative sample of 17,565 parents/caregivers and 8,069 children from 37 countries in in our program participants group.