The Right to Security of Online Childhood

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 2012

This paper examines the initial 'moral panic' surrounding children's access to the Internet at the end of the last century by analysing over 900 media articles and key government documents from 1997-2001. It explores the ambiguous settlements that this produced in adult-child relations, and children's access to the Internet. The paper then revisits the policy and media debate a decade later by examining the Byron Review, Digital Britain report and media coverage of these, in order to explore how these settlements have been negotiated, resisted and transformed over the subsequent period. In so doing, the paper asks whether it is time to reframe the debate about children's occupation of online public space, less in terms of 'care' for children's needs that tends to result in exclusionary and surveillance strategies, and more in terms of children's rights and capacities to engage in democratic debates about the nature of a online public space in which they are already participating.

The Professional Geographer, 2001

Children are considered particularly important in debates about the possibilities and dangers of information and communication technologies (ICT). Discourses on ICT contain paradoxical representations of childhood. On the one hand, unlike most other understandings of child/adult relations, these discourses assume children to be equally, if not more, technologically competent than adults. On the other hand, children's very competence at using ICT is alleged to be putting them "at risk" of abuse or corruption. This paper addresses these moral panics about children and ICT by exploring to what extent and why parents are concerned about their children's safety in on-line space. In doing so the paper reflects on the extent to which anxieties about children in cyberspace replicate concerns about public outdoor space and the way networked computers emerge as different tools in different households.

This brief discussion paper shares preliminary work to develop a practical framework for thinking about rights-respecting advocacy, policy and practice responses to support and empower children and young people in their daily encounters with the Internet and other networked digital technologies. Contemporary public service policy and practice responses to the role of the Internet in young people's lives focus disproportionately on strategies involving web blocking and filtering, restriction of access to online spaces, and safety messaging highlighting what young people should not do online. We argue that such strategies can be both counterproductive, and lead to a neglect of the role of public services in promoting young people's digital literacy and skills. Whilst the EU Kids Online program has highlighted that " safety initiatives to reduce risk tend also reduce opportunities " (De Haan & Livingstone, 2009), alternative strategies are needed that help professionals working with young people to move beyond a conceptual model in which the 'risks' and 'opportunities' of digital technologies are set up in opposition. In exploring how to respond to the online lives of children and young people, safety must sit alongside, and be integrated with, a broader range of considerations, including promoting positive uptake of online opportunities, promoting skills relevant to a digital economy, and encouraging the development of accessible, democratic online spaces in which rights to both play and participation, amongst others, can be realized. We suggest that the common classification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Provision, Protection and Participation rights (Cantwell, 1993) can provide the basis for such strategies, in which the protection of children and young people, the provision of appropriate services, spaces and support, and

This project looked at two different sets of data to further understand the relationship between surveillance discourse and the Internet, how surveillance discourse around navigating the Internet has developed, and how children use social technology and digital media for positive communication as well as an alternative space for social engagement. This project argues that there is a disconnect between the way children use social technology, and the approach authoritative websites take in aiming to educate parents, educators, and children on using the Internet safely. This study performs a thematic content analysis on websites that aim to educate on Internet Safety. Additionally, this qualitative study focuses on semi-structured interviews with grade 4-6 students in a French language school in Western Ontario and their reaction to the question, “how do you use technology”. This project is a stepping-stone into many conversations around the possibilities present for the Internet, children, and communication.

New Media & Society

Rights-based approaches to children’s digital media practices are gaining attention offering a framework for research, policy and initiatives that can balance children’s need for protection online with their capacity to maximize the opportunities and benefits of connectivity. But what does it mean to bring the concepts of the digital, rights and the child into dialogue? Arguing that the child represents a limit case of adult normative discourses about both rights and digital media practices, this article harnesses the radical potential of the figure of the child to rethink (human and children’s) rights in relation to the digital. In doing so, we critique the implicitly adult, seemingly invulnerable subject of rights common in research and advocacy about digital environments. We thereby introduce the articles selected for this special issue and the thinking that links them, in order to draw out the wider tensions and dilemmas driving the emerging agenda for children’s rights in the d...

2011

This brief discussion paper shares preliminary work to develop a practical framework for thinking about rights-respecting advocacy, policy and practice responses to support and empower children and young people in their daily encounters with the Internet and other networked digital technologies. Contemporary public service policy and practice responses to the role of the Internet in young people's lives focus disproportionately on strategies involving web blocking and filtering, restriction of access to online spaces, and safety messaging highlighting what young people should not do online. We argue that such strategies can be both counterproductive, and lead to a neglect of the role of public services in promoting young people's digital literacy and skills.

Children’s rights in the digital age can be complex. Within the digital world children can often be more skilled, risk oriented, and willing to challenge power relationships. Particularly in Australia, a Western developed country; children are more commonly being equipped with very powerful technological tools for communication and learning. Laptops, tablets and smart phones are only tools, but the power they possess, and the influence they can create within social groups and communities, is vast. This paper attempts to explore one Case Study, which is located within a conservative Christian school in Victoria, Australia. It outlines the school’s approach to technology, considers various stakeholders’ involvement in decision making processes, and offers some analysis from a sociological and children’s rights perspective.

2017

In the new edition of one of the key methods texts in childhood research – Research with children: Perspectives and practices, edited by Pia Christensen and Allison James – Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross argue that paying attention to the digital reveals a lot about children’s identities and relationships. The previous 2008 edition barely mentioned mobile phones, social networking, online identities or digital games, with researchers implicitly prioritising face-to-face interaction. Yet as children now play, learn, create and interact within digital environments, this raises new ethical and methodological challenges and opportunities for researchers.

PhD Thesis, 2019

Children and young people’s use of digital media technologies has predominantly been framed in terms of risk, generating a collective anxiety typically expressed through media panics, ‘cyber safety’ information and ‘good parenting advice’ discourse. At the same time, discourses of opportunity frame the purported benefits and competitive advantages afforded by digital media and technologies, especially with respect to young people’s education and future job prospects. This study problematises the relations between the discursive formations of risk and opportunities with respect to children’s use of digital media and parents’ related perspectives, practices and knowledges, and social constructions of the ‘good’ parent who is ‘responsibilised’ for negotiating this tension. It reports on a qualitative analysis of 40 parents of children aged 12-16 to examine their anxieties, practices, knowledges and expectations in relation to their children’s digital media use. It draws on a number of theoretical influences from communications and media studies and parenting literature to critically interrogate popular discourses including those related to ‘media panics’ and the ‘good parent’. This study found that participants’ concerns were framed in terms of a tension between their children’s socio-biological and socio-technological development. Participants assessed the ‘appropriateness’ or not of their children’s activities in terms of whether or not it posed a threat to or an opportunity for their children’s ‘normal’ development. Participants established their own ‘hierarchies of value’, drawing on several criteria, to determine the implicit value and hence appropriateness or not of certain activities. This dissertation develops two distinct models of parenting to better understand the complexities of parents’ anxieties, practices and knowledges in negotiating the tension between minimising risks while maximising opportunities. The majority of parents adopted an ‘immersive’ style of parenting, immersing themselves in their children’s lives and embracing notions of trust, dialogue and child empowerment. Other parents adopted a ‘methodised’ approach involving adherence to a more structured set of rules and regulations. The primary contribution of this thesis is to problematise simplistic understandings of ‘good’ parenting in the digital age by uncovering the ways that parents themselves have developed their family practices to rely primarily on trust and communication as a way of minimising the risks while maximising the opportunities afforded by digital media technologies.

Innocenti Discussion Papers, 2021

Children's lives are increasingly mediated by digital technologies, yet our knowledge of how this affects their well-being is far from comprehensive. We know, for example, that the online environment exposes children to new ideas and more diverse sources of information. The use of digital technologies can expand their opportunities, reduce inequalities and contribute to the realization of children's rights. We also know that when children seek information online and want to learn, they risk being exposed to inappropriate or potentially harmful content. Yet, when it comes to determining the long-term effects of internet use and online experiences on children's well-being, mental health or resilience, the best we can do is make an educated guess. This is just one evidence gap among many that need to be filled in order that society can support children's positive use of digital technologies, develop children's skills and protect those who are vulnerable. Filling these gaps would benefit children. Their education, relationships, entertainment, and participation in a connected world increasingly depend on digital technologies. Filling these gaps would also help to guide policy and programme responses and maximize the potential of technological advancements. Our need for this knowledge has become even more acute as internet use rises during the global COVID-19 pandemic. This report identifies, evaluates and synthesizes what has been learned from the most recent research about children's experiences and outcomes relating to the internet and digital technologies. It aims to inform policymakers, educators, child protection specialists, industry and parents on the latest and best evidence, and it proposes a future research agenda.