We are trying to improve the lives of children in the Netherlands by telling organisations what needs to change for children. A few rules apply to every study by the Ombudsman for Children. We will explain them below:
- Anything you tell us remains anonymous. Your parents, teacher or classmates can't find out what you answered. We never mention your name in a report or publication. We only use what you have told us.
- The information you give us stays with the Children's Ombudsman. We don't share this information with other people!
- Participation in research by the Children's Ombudsman is voluntary. This means that you can tell us about your life, but you don't have to! Also, you can always stop the questionnaire, even halfway through or when you are almost finished.
- There are no right or wrong answers! We want to hear how things are going in your life; what is going well but also what is not going so well. If you don't want to answer a question, that's fine too. You decide what you want to tell us.
- You decide if you want to be a part of our research. Your parents will probably want to know this too. If you are not sure about participating, you can talk about it to your parents or another adult you trust. You can show them this website so that they also know what it is about. If your parents have any questions for us, they can always send an email to research@dekinderombudsman.nl.
General information about the Children's Ombudsman
It doesn't matter how old you are or where you're from: everyone has rights. That includes children! That is why there are laws and rules that protect children. The Children's Ombudsman checks if the government and other organisations in the Netherlands comply with this.
The Children's Ombudsman helps children and young people up to the age of 18 to stand up for their rights. Suppose you have a problem with an organisation – like your city council, a ministry, youth care or the police – because you think they are not handling your children's rights properly. If you get in touch with us about this, we can give you advice, talk to this organisation or start an investigation.
We want to hear from children how they are doing, so we can do our job properly. Above all, we want to know what is going well in the Netherlands. But also, what needs to be improved for children. This is why in all the research we do, we ask children to help us. So that we can give better advice to the organisations that have to comply with children's rights.
Recurring research 'If you ask us'
Once every two years we do a big study called 'If you ask us' among all children in the Netherlands. We usually combine this with our Children's Rights Tour. We set up an online questionnaire and speak to lots of children in the European and Caribbean Netherlands. This gives us a lot of important information, which is also important for scientific research. That is why scientists are sometimes allowed to use this information. For example, we have good contacts with the University of Groningen. Students from Groningen can use the information from our research for their studies. But even then, everything you tell us is anonymous: so they don't know who you are!