The UK Chief Medical Officer has just released a report on screen use and the mental health and wellbeing of children. This post by Sonia Livingstone examines new research which has shown that the length of screen time for children is not as harmful as first thought, and calls for a more balanced approach. Sonia Livingstone is Professor of Social Psychology […]
The Department for Education’s consultation on changes to teaching on sex and relationship education and Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) recently closed. LSE’s Professor Sonia Livingstone and MSc Media Communications Governance student DaYoung Yoo give their view on what the Department should do as it considers how to improve PSHE, arguing that the digital must be a dimension of all teaching.
The Department for Education […]
In this post Larry Magid takes a look at the recent media coverage of two apps and games that have been accused of harming children’s mental health. He argues that these sensationalist stories are often based on fake news and may serve only to exaggerate fears surrounding online risk in potentially damaging ways. Larry is a technology journalist and an Internet safety advocate. He is […]
A Swedish survey has claimed that social media use negatively affects the self esteem of young people. But such studies must take into account the complex intertwining of online and offline worlds, and recognise that a sharp distinction between life, relationships, and communication online and offline is no longer meaningful. Stine Liv Johansen is an Associate Professor at the Centre […]
Rapidly developing technology and the ubiquity of social media means that there is increasing risk of child sexual exploitation or abuse online. A recent NSPCC FOI investigation found there were more than 3,000 police-recorded offences for sexual communication with a child in England and Wales in 2017/18 alone. In this post, Pooja Kumari introduces the NSPCC’s new Wild West Web […]
Post-Cambridge-Analytica, and post-GDPR, children are becoming increasingly aware of how their data is being used online but there are still limits to their digital literacy. In this post, Sonia Livingstone, Mariya Stoilova and Rishita Nandagiri discuss how they are conceptualising issues of privacy and personal data in their latest ICO-funded research into children’s understanding of privacy and data use […]
Misinformation and distrust are the characteristics of our time and make the question of how to promote critical digital literacy particularly important. Here, Gianfranco Polizzi suggests ten texts that offer a framework for thinking about how to approach it. Gianfranco is a PhD researcher at the Department of Media and Communications, LSE. Employing a mixed qualitative methodology, his PhD looks at the intersection of […]
The UK’s Commission on Fake News and the Teaching of Critical Literacy Skills recently published a report on fake news and critical literacy which surveyed schoolchildren and teachers. LSE PhD researcher Gianfranco Polizzi summarises the key findings of the report – which include that only 2% of children can spot fake news – and sets out his recommendations in response. [Header image credit: Y.C.V. […]
Media literacy is often cited as the solution – but to what problem? In this post Professor of Social Psychology at LSE and Chair of the LSE Truth, Trust and Technology Commission, Sonia Livingstone, provides an overview of the current debates about the benefits and limits of media literacy following a recent Westminster Media Forum seminar about fake news at which she spoke. [Header […]
Precedents for using young children’s screen content to promote diversity, inclusion, respect and understanding are surprisingly rare. The crisis of forced migration and the media needs of new arrivals and settled children call for a widely-targeted initiative. What practical screen content policies and production recommendations are best for giving children a voice and promoting their social engagement and future participation […]
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