1. Children’s developing digital literacy: dilemmas in linking evidence and policy
Sonia Livingstone
@Livingstone_S

2. Media literacy, digital literacy, development

3. Digital media exacerbate the challenges

4. Moral and media panics

6. Case 1: Screen time rules

8. “Bright line” rules

10. Case 2: The age of digital consent

11. “Digital” age of consent in Europe
13/15? 13 16 13 13 13 16 16 14 13

12. UK children who use social media by age (Ofcom 2016)

14. Do you know why the 3 results at the top of the page have been listed first?

15. Age matters a lot

16. Understanding sponsored results increases with year on year

17. Understanding is less in low SES homes – a deprived 15 year old knows about what a well-off 11 year old knows
Predicted probability of giving a correct answer to Q26A by SES as age varies from 8 to 15 years, with activities and parental mediation held at the average

18. Active parenting can almost double a child’s chance of understanding
Predicted probability of giving a correct answer to Q26A by SES for a 12 year old who undertakes average activities as parental mediation varies

19. The more kids do online, the more they understand the online environment
Predicted probability of giving a correct answer to Q26A by SES for a 12 year old with average parental mediation as their online activities increase

20. Case 3: Children’s rights in the digital environment

21. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Protection from any kind of discrimination (Article 2), all forms of abuse and neglect (Art. 19), including sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (Art. 34), and other forms of exploitation prejudicial to the child’s welfare (Art. 36), from ‘information and material injurious to the child’s well-being’ (Art. 17e), ‘arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, or correspondence [and] unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation’ (Art. 16)
Provision to support children’s rights to life and development (Art.6), to preserve his or her identity (Art. 8), to an education to support the development of their full potential (Art. 28) and prepare them ‘for responsible life in a free society’ (Art. 29), to recreation and leisure appropriate to their age (Art. 31), to diverse material of social and cultural benefit to the child (including minorities) to promote children’s well-being (Art. 17) and all appropriate measures for recovery from neglect, exploitation or abuse (Art.39)
Participation: ‘In all actions concerning children… the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration’ (Art. 3), including the right of children to be consulted in all matters affecting them (Art. 12), to freedom of expression (Art. 13) , freedom of thought (Art.14), of association and assembly (Art. 15), to information (Art.17) and to participate fully in cultural life (Art.31)

23. Towards evidence-based policy

24. Challenges of evidence-based policy
There is nothing a Government hates more than to be well-informed; for it makes the process of arriving at decisions much more complicated and difficult. (John Maynard Keynes, The Times, 11 March 1937) As anyone working in the field of research use knows, a central irony is the only limited extent to which evidence advocates can themselves draw on a robust evidence base to support their convictions that greater evidence use will ultimately be beneficial to public services (Nutley, Walter, & Davies, 2007)

25. Thank you s.livingstone@lse.ac.uk @Livingstone_S