Journal article 76 views 16 downloads
The Rights of Very Young Children in the Digital Environment of the Family Home: Findings From a UK Survey of Children 0–36 Months and Their Parents
Karen Winter 
,
Rosie Flewitt ,
Sandra El Gemayel ,
Lisa Bunting ,
Lorna Arnott ,
Paul Connolly ,
Andrew Dalziell ,
Julia Gillen ,
Janet Goodall ,
Min‐Chen Liu,
Katrina McLaughlin,
Sabina Savadova ,
Sarah Timmins
,
Rosie Flewitt ,
Sandra El Gemayel ,
Lisa Bunting ,
Lorna Arnott ,
Paul Connolly ,
Andrew Dalziell ,
Julia Gillen ,
Janet Goodall ,
Min‐Chen Liu,
Katrina McLaughlin,
Sabina Savadova ,
Sarah Timmins
Children & Society
Swansea University Authors:
Janet Goodall , Sarah Timmins
-
PDF | Version of Record
© 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
Download (520.28KB)
DOI (Published version): 10.1111/chso.12968
Abstract
As digital technologies have become increasingly embedded in daily family life, there has been a growing international concern about children's protection, provision and participation rights in a digital environment. Recognising this, the Committee on the Rights of the Child published General C...
| Published in: | Children & Society |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0951-0605 1099-0860 |
| Published: |
Wiley
2025
|
| Online Access: |
Check full text
|
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69359 |
| Abstract: |
As digital technologies have become increasingly embedded in daily family life, there has been a growing international concern about children's protection, provision and participation rights in a digital environment. Recognising this, the Committee on the Rights of the Child published General Comment No. 25 Children's Rights in Relation to the Digital Environment (CRC, 2021), giving detailed advice on implementation issues in this area and calling for up-to-date research about children's digital lives. This paper makes a significant contribution to that much-needed knowledge base by reporting the findings of an online survey conducted with parents and legal guardians (n = 1444) (hereafter parents) of children aged 0–36 months across socially and ethnically diverse families in the four UK nations. The survey represented phase one of a larger three-phase project, ‘Toddlers, Tech and Talk’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, which aimed to build an empirically robust body of knowledge about how 0-3-year-olds' lives intersect with digital technologies at home in socially and ethnically diverse families in inner-city, urban and rural communities. The survey found that nearly all family homes have Wi-Fi connection, that many homes have a wide range of digital devices and that very young children engage in a wide range of digital activities both with their parents and on their own. Parents' mediation practices are shaped by parental digital practices and attitudes, with concomitant implications for children's digital rights. Implications are highlighted. |
|---|---|
| Keywords: |
0–3 years old children; digital technology; family home; parents; UNCRC children's rights |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Funders: |
ESRC (ES/W001020/1) |