The possibility that screen time during early childhood could cause poorer attention later in a child’s life is a major concern for both parents and ...more

Full speed ahead into the new year, we reflect on what we learned over the past six months. P4DF has followed some prominent issues related ...more

In responding to the UK government’s recent consultation on “Data: a new direction,” LSE’s Professor Sonia Livingstone and 5Rights Foundation researcher Dr Kruakae Pothong drew ...more

In this blog, Sonia Livingstone, Kristen Hope-Burchill and Konstantinos Papachristou examine the significant impact of the pandemic on children’s digital lives and how governments can ...more

LSE’s Professor Sonia Livingstone and Dr Mariya Stoilova explain the findings of their new report on the impact of digital experiences on adolescents with mental ...more

Christmas time is here, again. The festive lights, fir trees, and spectacular holiday window displays serve to remind us that we should be opening our ...more

There are overlaps between online victimisation and aggression - this is what the EU Kids Online study of 1,440 European children aged 9-16 showed. In ...more

Like many of us, schools are active on social media. They use their accounts to share timely information, build community and highlight staff and students. ...more

Concerns for children’s online safety recently focused on the new evidence of the possible negative effects of Instagram on teen mental health reigniting long-standing questions ...more

Earlier this year the UK government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport published an ‘Online Media Literacy Strategy,’ as promised in the online harms ...more

In the wake of yet another storm of revelations about the merciless practices of powerful technology companies, Velislava Hillman, Visiting Fellow at LSE, looks at ...more

There’s no doubt that the pandemic has altered our relationship with media and technology over the last year, especially for young people whose education, entertainment, ...more

Around the world governments encourage teaching in digital skills and literacies in the school curriculum and promote digital learning at home. The hope is that ...more

Online content subscription platform OnlyFans attracted a good deal of attention at the end of August when it announced that it would be banning sexually ...more

An estimated 13% of the global adolescent population aged 12-19 years – or 166 million children – live with some mental disorder, according to UNICEF’s ...more

While the Covid-19 pandemic has sent internet use to record levels among both children and adults, UK household adoption of connected devices has been growing ...more

The influence of digital everyday technologies on the lives of children and young people is an increasingly researched field. This applies to the resulting opportunities ...more

Here we are at the beginning of a new school year once again, not quite sure what’s ahead of us and how to prepare for ...more

The UK government recently published a draft Online Safety Bill, which it says delivers on its commitment “to make the UK the safest place in the ...more

Children of all ages are at the forefront of using digital technologies but we often hear in the media how their internet use can be ...more

A lot has changed in the world of digital play over the past decade. The speed and power of processors have produced games that we ...more

We may be emerging from the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, but with the pandemic came one of the greatest mental ...more

Young women become compelled to share more of their bodies on social media and "act sexy" to maintain their subscribers' interest and earn money. In ...more

As another school year draws to an end, many educators and parents might heave a sigh of relief. The past months have been demanding, often requiring a quick ...more

It’s been an eventful year in many ways, and a tough one for most people. Children’s lives became digital by default. Education went remote. Screen ...more

“Welcome to the World of Twisted ToysTM, a wonderland of excitement,  experiences and exploitation. We pride ourselves on making toys that are addictive, risky and ...more

Amidst ongoing focus on the difficulties many new mothers face in the period after having a baby, attention has recently been paid to the struggles ...more

During the pandemic, many children’s lives became ‘digital by default.’ What have we learnt? While children have reported some positive experiences, says Sonia Livingstone (LSE), digital inequalities ...more

The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted in-class, face-to-face learning to remote learning. But the consequences for children’s education are yet to be properly evaluated. Suddenly, education became dependent on fair ...more

Children’s need for play in the current pandemic can be mapped in their imaginary farms, dens and worlds of Minecraft and dance routines on TikTok. As ...more

The number of children who live in conflict zones is staggering: eighty-one percent live in a conflict-ridden state –1.8 billion souls. Yet when scholars discuss ...more

For many families and children in the UK, 2021 kicked off with old and new challenges and uncertainties. Much about this school term has been ambiguous, ...more

How do parents and carers approach bringing up their children in the digital age? Drawing on research for Parenting for a Digital Future: How hopes ...more

The government's Online Safety Bill, recently announced in the Queen's Speech, calls for a new system of regulation for tech companies with the goal of preventing ...more

Parents can become overwhelmed by the rapid changes in information and communication technologies (ICT) and contradictory advice on how best to support their children’s safe ...more

Children, like adults, are spending more time online. At home and school pre-schoolers now use an array of apps and platforms to learn, play and ...more

In the growing debate over children’s rights in relation to the digital world, parents may wonder about their role. As technology gets more complex, seemingly ...more

Childhood records, once kept safe in paper files and family memory books, now exist as records in the digital cloud. This data has become increasingly ...more

The claim that students’ use of mobile phones at school is connected with lower academic performance has consistently featured in the popular debate around school ...more

The interest in personalisation, that is using information about individuals for tailoring generic content, has been with us since the dawn of humankind, but it ...more