Child in the wild: children in the digitising/digitised world

7th February 2022 : 17:30 - 19:00

***REGISTER IN ADVANCE***

Part of a seminar series interrogating the concept of rights of the child and implications for research, policy and practice

In early 2021, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted General Comment 25 which binds States to acknowledge that children’s rights apply to the digital realm, and to take the necessary steps to ensure that these rights are protected. While the General Comment 25 can be recognised as the first vital step towards creating a set of regulations that take the digital world into account when it comes to the rights of the child, it is important to see it as a first step. The existing formulation of the UNCRC may not be sufficient to address the issues and concerns of the child in a digitised world. The UNCRC was written for a society different from the one that exists now, and will soon come to exist with regard to the digital. This seminar brings together academics, researchers, and activists who have been working in the area of children and the digital world, to discuss the possibilities and the challenges that are emerging.

 

About the speakers:

Chair: Victoria Nash is the Director, an Associate Professor, and Senior Policy Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII). Her research draws on her background as a political theorist, and concern the policy implications of evidence characterising children’s use of Internet technologies. Recent projects have included an analysis of age verification policies as a tool for balancing the interests of children and adults online, and an examination of the data risks posed to children by connected toys and the Internet of Things. She holds several digital policy advisory roles, including membership of the UK Government’s multi-stakeholder UK Council on Internet Safety (UKCIS) Evidence Group.

Speaker 1: Sonia Livingstone DPhil (Oxon), OBE, FBA, FBPS, FAcSS, FRSA, is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Much of Sonia’s time these days is concerned with Children’s Rights in the Digital Age. Sonia has published 20 books on media audiences, especially children and young people’s risks and opportunities, media literacy and rights in the digital environment, including The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age  (New York University Press, with Julian Sefton-Green). Her new book is Parenting for a Digital Future: How hopes and fears about technology shape children’s lives (Oxford University Press), with Alicia Blum-Ross.

Speaker 2: Amanda Third is Professorial Research Fellow in Digital Social and Cultural Research in the Institute for Culture and Society and Co-Director of the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University; and Research Stream Co-Lead in the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (Deakin; Western Sydney University and Victoria University). An international expert in user-centred, participatory research, her work investigates children’s and young people’s technology practices, focusing on marginalised groups and rights-based approaches. She has led child-centred projects to understand children’s and young people’s experiences of the digital age in 68 countries, working with partners across corporate, government and not-for-profit sectors.

Speaker 3: Anil Raghuvanshi is the founder/president of ChildSafeNet, a leading organization in Nepal working to protect children and young people online. He had worked for more than three decades in nine countries as a child protection professional with Unicef, ILO, UN DPKO, Save the Children, ECPAT International and Plan International. He has been promoting a safer and better internet for children and has started the Safer Internet Day campaign and Stop.Think.Connect movement in Nepal. He has led a number of research studies on protecting children online and is a member of the Global Advisory Group of Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI).