Join us to celebrate the launch of Digital media use in early childhood with the authors and discussants.
The easy interface of touchscreen technologies like tablets and smartphones has enabled children to access the digital world from a very young age. Some commentators are enthusiastic about how this brings new opportunities fun, learning, and developing digital skills. Others worry about screentime, electronic babysitters, loss of interaction with parents and poor social skills.
The book draws on a three-year research project examining the realities of under six-year-olds' experiences of digital technologies in the UK and Australia. At the launch, the authors will present the key arguments and reflect on a child rights-informed approach to early years’ digital lives.
“This book offers a complexified view of young children’s uses of technologies and appreciates diverse configurations of families. The book recognizes young children as rights holders in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It offers helpful insights for those working in early childhood and family contexts as educators, researchers, and policymakers.” - Lori McKee, Associate Professor in Curriculum Studies, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
"This fascinating book challenges established notions about children and technology and offers significant insights into issues such as digital parenting, screen time and learning through digital media. This important book is a must-read for researchers, educators and policy makers alike and will undoubtedly inform future global research and policy agendas in this area." - Jackie Marsh, Emeritus Professor, University of Sheffield, UK
Book authors: Lelia Green, Leslie Haddon, Sonia Livingstone, Brian O’Neill, Kylie Stevenson, Donell Holloway
More about the book
Pre-order book (flyer with discount code)
About the speakers
Susan Danby is a Professor of Education at the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology (QUT).She brings expertise in young children’s engagement with digital technologies and studies social interaction across home, school and clinical settings. She currently leads a collective of researchers as Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.
Lelia Green is a Professor of Communications at the School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, Australia. She is the (co-)author of over 160 publications and has active research interests across the media and communications landscape with a focus on children’s digital lives and family-based ethnographic investigations of children’s mobile media use.
Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE is the Founder and Chair of 5Rights. She is a Crossbench member of the House of Lords and sits on the Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee. She is a Commissioner for UNESCO’s Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development where she is a member of the Working Group on Child Online Safety; a member of Unicef’s AI group; and sits on the Council on Extended Intelligence.
Sonia Livingstone DPhil (Oxon), FBA, FBPS, FAcSS, FRSA, OBE is a Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is the author of 20 books on children’s online opportunities and risks, including “The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age”. Sonia has advised the UK government, European Commission, European Parliament, Council of Europe and other national and international organisations on children’s rights, risks and safety in the digital age.
Brian O’Neill is an emeritus Professor at the Technological University Dublin. He is a research consultant and media education expert with specialism in media literacy, policy for the digital environment and internet governance. He has published extensively in these areas. Brian is a member of the Council of Europe’s Expert Group on Digital Citizenship Education.