Rights-based approaches to children’s digital media practices are gaining attention offering a framework for research, policy and initiatives that can balance children’s need for protection online with their capacity to maximize the opportunities and benefits of connectivity. But what does it mean to bring the concepts of the digital, rights and the child into dialogue? Arguing that the child represents a limit case of adult normative discourses about both rights and digital media practices, this article harnesses the radical potential of the figure of the child to rethink (human and children’s) rights in relation to the digital. In doing so, we critique the implicitly adult, seemingly invulnerable subject of rights common in research and advocacy about digital environments. We thereby introduce the articles selected for this special issue and the thinking that links them, in order to draw out the wider tensions and dilemmas driving the emerging agenda for children’s rights in the digital age.
AlburyK (2017) Just because it’s public, doesn’t mean it’s any of your business: adults and children’s sexual rights in digitally mediated spaces. New Media & Society19(5): 713–725.
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AlperMGogginG (2017) Digital technology and rights in the lives of children with disabilities. New Media & Society19(5): 726–740.
3.
ArneilB (2002) Being versus becoming: children in liberal democratic theory. In: ArchardDMacleodCM (eds) The Moral and Political Status of Children. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 70–95.
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AroldiPVittadiniN (2017) Children’s rights and social media: issues and prospects for adoptive families in Italy. New Media & Society19(5): 741–749.
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AsthanaS (2017) Translation and localization of children’s rights in youth-produced digital media in the Global South: a hermeneutic exploration. New Media & Society19(5): 686–700.
BulgerMBurtonPO’NeillB. (2017) Where policy and practice collide: comparing US, South African and European Union approaches to protecting children online. New Media & Society19(5): 750–764.
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HansonK (2014) ‘Killed by charity’: towards interdisciplinary children’s rights studies. Childhood21(4): 441–446.
ListerR (2008) Unpacking children’s citizenship. In: InvernizziAWilliamsJ (eds) Children and Citizenship. London: SAGE, pp. 9–19.
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LivingstoneSBulgerM (2014) A global research agenda for children’s rights in the digital age. Journal of Children and Media. Epub ahead of print 24September. DOI: 10.1080/17482798.2014.961496.
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LivingstoneSCarrJByrneJ (2015) One in Three: The Task for Global Internet Governance in Addressing Children’s Rights. London: Centre for International Governance Innovation and Chatham House.
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LuptonDWilliamsonB (2017) The datafied child: the dataveillance of children and implications for their rights. New Media & Society19(5): 780–794.
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MacenaiteM (2017) From universal towards child-specific protection of the right to privacy online: dilemmas in the EU general data protection regulation. New Media & Society19(5): 765–779.
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MansellR (2012) Imagining the Internet: Communication, Innovation, and Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
PhillipsBMoynS (2011) Reflections on ‘The last utopia’: a conversation with Samuel Moyn. Journal of Human Rights Practice. Epub ahead of print 5May. DOI: 10.1093/jhuman/hur009.
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SenA (2005) Human rights and capabilities. Journal of Human Development6(2): 151–166.
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SwistTCollinP (2017) Platforms, data and children’s rights: introducing a ‘networked capability approach’. New Media & Society19(5): 671–685.
ThirdA (2016) Researching the Benefits and Opportunities for Children Online. London: Global Kids Online. Available at: www.globalkidsonline/opportunities
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ThirdACollinP (2016) Rethinking (children’s and young people’s) citizenship through dialogues on digital practice. In: McCoskerAVivienneSJohnsA (eds) Negotiating Digital Citizenship: Control, Contest and Culture. London, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 41–60.
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ThirdABelleroseDDawkinsU. (2014) Children’s Rights in the Digital Age: A Download from Children around the World. 2nd ed.Melbourne, VIC, Australia; New York: Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre and UNICEF.
27.
TurnerF (2006) From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network and the Rise of the Digital Utopianism. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
