Children’s internet use is more personal, mobile and even fair – while parents pick up the cost

Sonia Livingstone takes a closer look at the 2015 report by Childwise, a research agency that has been tracking UK children’s media use for almost twenty years. Sonia argues that the findings demand a steep learning curve from parents to keep up with the latest trends, but also challenges them to reach for their wallets. Sonia is Professor of Social Psychology at LSE’s Department of Media and Communications and has more than 25 years of experience in media research with a particular focus on children and young people. She is the lead investigator of the Parenting for a Digital Future research project

National Curriculum Needs more Attention to Digital Skills

A consultation is currently underway on England’s National Curriculum and LSE’s Sonia Livingstone has looked at the proposed framework and found it severely lacks appropriate coverage of digital skills. She argues that it also mistakenly continues to treat them solely as technological, disregarding important social aspects of online communication

iRights – advocating for children’s rights online

Sonia Livingstone thinks that promoting children’s rights in the digital age is an idea whose time has come. She discusses why it is difficult to tell who is a child online, how these and other issues can be addressed, and how the iRights initiative and its five simple claims attempt to deliver children’s rights online. Sonia is Professor of Social Psychology at LSE’s Department of Media and Communications and has more than 25 years of experience in media research with a particular focus on children and young people. She is the lead investigator of the Parenting for a Digital Future research project

Children: a special case for privacy?

As the world absorbs the impact of Europe’s GDPR, Sonia Livingstone asks if data protection can work for children’s privacy – or if a wider view is needed for all ages of user

More online risks for parents to worry about, says new Safer Internet Day research

Parents are worried about their children’s online privacy, but what are their options? Filtering content, invasive protection measures, or turning the internet off? Today is Safer Internet Day and Sonia Livingstone takes a closer look at children’s exposure to online hate. Sonia is Professor of Social Psychology at LSE’s Department of Media and Communications and has more than 25 years of experience in media research with a particular focus on children and young people. She is the lead investigator of the Parenting for a Digital Future research project and the Evidence Champion for the UK Council for Child Internet Safety

Young juries want a fair internet: deliberating over digital rights

Sonia Livingstone recently had the chance to listen to young people deliberate their online rights. Young people, just like adults, are trying to work out the digital environment for themselves and Sonia discusses some of their suggestions, anxieties and frustrations. Sonia is Professor of Social Psychology at LSE’s Department of Media and Communications and has more than 25 years of experience in media research with a particular focus on children and young people. She is the lead investigator of the Parenting for a Digital Future research project

A framework for researching Global Kids Online: understanding children’s well-being and rights in the digital age

This guide introduces the Global Kids Online research framework. It is recommended that this guide is read carefully to understand the aims, structure and contribution of the Global Kids Online project, toolkit, and emerging findings. The guide begins by identifying the global research challenge of researching children’s internet and mobile use as more children go online around the world. A review of available statistics and research literature shows that the evidence based to date is uneven, with many gaps that urgently need to be filled. This is vital if stakeholders are to base their policy and practice on robust evidence regarding the online risks and opportunities as well as outcomes for children’s wellbeing and rights. The guide highlights the overarching research questions and defines the main terms used throughout Global Kids Online. It then provides a step-by-step rationale for the Global Kids Online model, showing how individual, social and country levels of explanation all contribute to analysing and measuring the influences on children’s rights in the digital age. This effort poses a number of challenges for researchers, and these are identified and best practice solutions suggested

What are pre-schoolers doing with tablets and is it good for them?

The undeniable reality is that ever younger children are gaining access to tablets, becoming proficient tablet users, but is this really in their best interests, developmentally? Sonia Livingstone highlights the findings of a recent report looking into young children’s digital play and opportunities. Sonia is Professor of Social Psychology at LSE’s Department of Media and Communications and has more than 25 years of experience in media research with a particular focus on children and young people. She is the lead investigator of the Parenting for a Digital Future research project

Why label our time and life digital?

Sonia Livingstone takes a closer look at the complex links between technology and society to understand both continuities and change between the past and present. She says that we can already see that children are the focus of intense speculation about the meaning of these transitions. Sonia is Professor of Social Psychology at LSE’s Department of Media and Communications and has more than 25 years of experience in media research with a particular focus on children and young people. She is the lead investigator of the Parenting for a Digital Future research project