A Global Research Agenda for Children’s Rights in the Digital Age

• In Event: Young People Making Sense of Online Media

Abstract

Taking the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as a starting point for evidence-based policy regarding children’s rights in the digital age, we map a global research agenda designed to produce evidence of value for policy makers working to promote children’s rights. Informed by research reviews and interviews with stakeholders internationally, six problems for policy, and thus foci for research, are identified: (i) the protection of children from risk of harm, (ii) the provision of opportunities that confer benefit, (iii) the balance between risk and opportunities, especially to ensure this allows for their participation even in risky opportunities, (iv) the relation between vulnerability and resilience, (v) the evaluation of which policies and initiatives are effective or not, and why, and (vi) the relevance of such knowledge to children’s lives in the global South. In addition, an array of practical problems and possible solutions are discussed.

Authors

• Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics

• Monica E. Bulger, U of Oxford