In Taiwan, April 4th is Children's Day, a meaningful day for children and adults to enjoy time together and relax. This year, we held events across Taiwan to promote public awareness of every child’s right to rest, leisure, play, and recreation. Through the 2025 Kids Hz! Children’s Day Play Festival, we created joyful spaces to provide children with the time and space to play freely, sparking their curiosity and imagination as they explore the world through play!

On April 12th, one of our major Children’s Day events is in Tamsui, New Taipei City. The celebration featured a variety of exciting performances, including a lively show by children from one of our community coalitions. CWLF’s mascot Puffy and Hearty, were joined by popular characters from Paw Patrol, delighting young audiences throughout the day. We were also thrilled to invite Tien Circus Theatre to throw us a stunning performance, while teachers from our Child-Rearing Support Community Service Center brought age-appropriate storytelling to life on stage. We also designed a parent-child challenge game and invited 10 partner organizations from the public, non-profit, and private sectors to join us. Through hands-on activities at various booths, children and parents not only had fun but also learned about sustainable living. Highlights included a handmade recycled paper workshop and toy recycling activities, helping children understand how everyday actions can contribute to protecting our planet.

For CWLF, Children’s Day carries deep meaning as it reflects our long-standing commitment to advocating for children’s rights and broader human rights. Our efforts began with the “Give Us Back Children's Day” campaign, which spanned a decade, and continued with advocacy for legislative reforms that secured discounted ticket policies for children. While these changes may appear institutional, they represent a deep commitment to recognizing children's agency and fundamental rights. We uphold children's rights to rest, leisure, play, and recreation. In light of this, our key advocacy initiatives and vision for the future are outlined below:

In the past, Children’s Day was a national holiday in Taiwan, giving children a day to rest and enjoy recreational activities. However, in 2001, as part of a broader adjustment to national holiday policies, Children's Day was reclassified as a commemorative day with no accompanying day off. In response, CWLF launched the “Give Us Back Children's Day” campaign, advocating for the reinstatement of the holiday as a way to uphold children’s right to play, as guaranteed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). After a decade of sustained advocacy, Children's Day was officially restored as a public holiday in 2010, bringing about a meaningful and tangible improvement in children’s lives across Taiwan.

Children under the age of 12 are entitled to equal access to ticket discounts and participation in recreational activities, in line with their right to play. However, there have been cases where children were denied these rights simply because they were “too tall.”

In the past, many public facilities and transportation services used a child’s height to determine eligibility for discounted tickets. As a result, taller children who exceeded the height threshold were excluded from receiving discounts. A 2012 survey conducted by CWLF found that children have experienced faster physical growth in recent years, making height-based systems both unfair and inconsistent with the principle of serving the child’s best interests.

Taiwan amended Article 33, Paragraph 3 of the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act in 2014 through sustained advocacy and policy engagement. The revision stipulated that discount eligibility should be determined by age, and that service providers must offer free or discounted services to children below the designated age. This amendment not only standardized discount policies across sectors but also prevented discrimination and the denial of rights based on physical differences in children’s development.

Since 2014, the central government has designated April as “Children's Month” in conjunction with Children's Day, encouraging local governments to partner with public and private sectors in hosting a wide range of activities that promote children’s participation in cultural and recreational activities. These efforts have significantly advanced the protection of children’s right to play. However, many children still face the challenge of limited access to recreational space.

"Some children wanted to practice with their school band or dance club after class, but were restricted by space limitations. They turned to CWLF's 1420Hz Children's Voice Platform [1] to launch a petition. After the petition succeeded, CWLF collaborated with local elected officials to negotiate with the government and secure designated time slots at venues for children's priority use."

From Children's Month to student-led petitions for play spaces, the former reflects the government's willingness to support children's participation. At the same time, the latter highlights children's growing agency in claiming their right to play and engaging in civic advocacy.

[1] CWLF's 1420Hz Children’s Voice Platform: https://www.1420hz.org.tw/ 
This online platform empowers children and adolescents to share their ideas and recommendations on policies that impact them. Through a proposal-based mechanism, it ensures that their voices are not only heard but also meaningfully considered in decision-making processes.

In recent years, at the intersection of the post-pandemic era and the digital age, children and adolescents have spent an increasing amount of time online, raising serious concerns about digital risk and privacy issues. The question of how to build a child-friendly digital environment, in which children can safely learn, explore and enjoy themselves, has become a critical issue in global discussions on children's right to play. CWLF believes that Taiwan must urgently update its legal framework to strengthen children's right to media literacy and to require digital service providers to assess and identify the potential risks children may encounter while using online products and services. These preventive mechanisms not only help reduce digital harms but also aim to ease social anxiety and curb internet addiction among children, ensuring they can benefit from the digital world in a safe and healthy way.

Whether advocating for a national holiday on Children's Day, revising eligibility criteria for children's discounts, or promoting a child-friendly digital environment, these seemingly routine issues are, in fact, public expressions of human rights. Truly placing children at the center is not just a slogan; it requires ensuring that every institutional design and policy responds to children's needs and upholds their best interests.

CWLF will continue to advocate for these goals and work alongside families with children and adolescents!