ICA preconference

Cape Town, South Africa (in-person only)

4 June 2026, half-day 8.30am - 12.00pm (UTC+2)

The Digital Futures for Children centre hosted the ICA 2026 pre-conference “Children’s rights under pressure in a digital world” organised in association with the ICA divisions Children, Adolescence and Media and Communication Law and Policy.

Keynote speaker

Ann Skelton, Professor, University of Pretoria and University of Leiden, and former Chair, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

About the pre-conference

Children and young people are often the early adopters, the ‘canaries in the coalmine’ of digital innovation around the world. We are long past the early optimism that digital technologies would spur development and close global inequalities. Instead, today’s concerns focus on how dominant digital business models are fuelling societal transformations that increasingly undermine children’s rights. As digital connectivity expands across the global South, countries in the region are beginning to grapple with the same adverse effects of digital inclusion on children’s wellbeing that have already prompted concern in the global North. Growing evidence also shows that different groups of children experience these impacts unevenly, with new research highlighting the distinct challenges faced by indigenous children as connectivity reaches their communities.

Education and awareness-raising for a digital world are crucial, but they are insufficient on their own. Many now call for stronger regulation to rein in the power of big tech to commodify and reshape all aspects of everyday life in the interests of profit. This is proving contentious, with key rights – safety, speech, privacy, participation – appearing to conflict and with stakeholders debating the respective responsibilities of government, industry, civil society, families, and educators in safeguarding children’s rights within a fast-moving and complex digital landscape.

This pre-conference brings together scholars and practitioners to explore how research can inform policy, regulation and design, and how global South perspectives can inform and shape international debates. The discussions will combine different perspectives, expertise and approaches under the umbrella of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General comment No. 25 on Children’s Rights in Relation to the Digital Environment.

Conference details

4 June 2026, half-day 8.30am - 12.00pm (UTC+2)

8.30 short welcome from the organisers

9.00 keynote by Professor Ann Skelton

9.30 thematic paper discussions, workshop style (extended abstracts will be shared ahead of time)

10.30 coffee break

11.00 panel discussion

Publication

The DFC welcomed multidisciplinary, original research studies addressing the theme of children’s rights in the digital environment.

Following the pre-conference, DFC published the extended abstracts in their anthology: Children's rights under pressure in a digital world.

Pre-conference organisers

This pre-conference was co-organised by:

• Sonia Livingstone and Kim R Sylwander, DFC, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) (UK)
• Patrick Burton (South Africa)
• Magdalena Claro Tagle, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (Chile)
• Matías Dodel, Universidad Católica del Uruguay (Uruguay)
• Jennifer Kaberi, Mtoto News (Kenya)
• Admark Moyo, Faculty of Law, Stellenbosch (South Africa)
• Julian Sefton-Green, Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, Deakin University (Australia)
• Fabio Senne, Cetic.br (Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society) (Brazil)

Queries are welcome, addressed to s.livingstone@lse.ac.uk

Photo credit: Pixelfusion3d