Sunday was International Children's Day, a flag day in Estonia since 2021, and an event which aims to draw attention to children's well-being and rights.

"Aktuaalne kaamera" spoke to schoolchildren, some of whom said while life is good in Estonia, bullying at school can still cause headaches.

One, Romet, said: "There was some bullying at school for a while. We went to school with my grandmother, talked to the bullies, and now they don't bully me anymore."

Another, Aino, who said they had been picked on in first and second grades, recounted that: "There are some people at school who bully from time to time /.../ it's easy to ask parents for help though."

The University of Tartu's Institute of Social Sciences has been taking part in a global study on child well-being, polling 2nd, 4th, and 6th grade children on how they are faring at school.

Dagmar Kutsar, associate professor of social policy at the institute, said: "This is a relatively new approach globally, because in the past adults have always been responsible and assumed to know what's best for children — but that's not always the case. Rather, children know what is best for themselves."

The study revealed that, overall, children tend to be more satisfied with life than adults do, though become more jaded as they get older.

Kutsar said: "It's not like a child is happy until their 18th birthday and then 'drops' to adult level — rather, their life environments expand and life just becomes more complicated," added Kutsar.

"What they have been pointing out themselves is access to mental health support — that's one of the biggest concerns, which they bring up everywhere," said Triin Sooäär, the coordinator for children and youth at the Estonian Union for Child Welfare (MTÜ Eesti Lastekaitse Liit).

Young people also tend to be dissatisfied with a lack of access to extracurricular education, or that access becoming increasingly difficult, either due to their residence location, or their parents' financial situation.

"We do ask for the opinions of children and young people, but what do we do with that feedback? Do we truly listen, or do we merely hear?" Sooäär added.

Children's Day has been celebrated in Estonia since the 1990s, led by the child welfare union.

While in Estonia the day is officially called Children's Protection Day (Lastekaitsepäev), the union feels this is outmoded.

Tamo Vahemets, the union's president, said: "This Children's Protection Day comes from a time when children were exploited as labor, and from that sprung mothers' desire to protect children, so they could have a childhood. Today, we no longer have those issues."

The union last year submitted a proposal to the Riigikogu to rename the day, as a result.

Estonia is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which sets out internationally recognized rights that belong to every child in the world, from birth to the age of 18.

Sooäär said that while the situation in Estonia has improved, children themselves need to be involved more.

"If you look at the recent report compiled by children themselves, which was also defended in Geneva, then actually we are doing quite well, but the increasingly pressing issue is whether we ask children what they themselves think — whether we include them," Sooäär concluded.

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