Learning

Only photo I took today.

A busy day at work involving a few meetings. In the afternoon I attended a lecture called “Perspectives on children navigating a digital world“ which was free and hosted by the British Academy. It’s not an area that I know lots about but I decided it was time to try and find out more about developments in the area and it was one of the more interesting lectures I have enjoyed during lockdown.

The presenters included a professor from London School of economics, a doctor from the University of Cambridge (cognitive brain sciences unit) a professor in law from the University of Sussex, The Assistant Director of Barnardos (policy and campaigns) and last but by no means least Baroness Beeban Kidron from the ‘5rights foundation’. I’ve never heard of the foundation before but it looks like they are involved in some excellent work and the Baroness was a very inspirational and well-informed speaker who I could’ve listened to for a lot longer.

One of the discussions was the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child. Interestingly I learned that this convention has not been ratified by the United States (where most tech companies are based). 196 countries have ratified it.

We talked about duty of care and the risk that some internet social platforms, for example, pose to children. Most of the discussion was about regulation of social media and how online environments are often not designed with children in mind.

There was a discussion about how dangerous platforms can be that encourage behaviours that are rewarded by public reach (several spring to mind).

It is hoped that in the future there will be more risk assessment so that risk, of using certain platforms, for certain user groups is identified and decisions made to keep certain users off the services. It’s likely that Ofcom are going to be the regulator in the UK and they will have to give directions to the companies.

There was an interesting discussion about freedom of speech versus freedom of reach - the suggestion being that some companies have assumed a right to take over a child’s life for commercial purposes.

There were questions about what kind of world children deserve and how children’s rights and not just about protection.

There was a suggestion that there has been wilful neglect around the issues.

The pandemic has deepened a dependency on technology for children. . .

To be continued . . .