Rethinking Responses to Children and Young Peoples Online Lives Davies Bhullar Dowty EU Kids Online ISSN Copy (original) (raw)

This brief discussion paper shares preliminary work to develop a practical framework for thinking about rights-respecting advocacy, policy and practice responses to support and empower children and young people in their daily encounters with the Internet and other networked digital technologies. Contemporary public service policy and practice responses to the role of the Internet in young people's lives focus disproportionately on strategies involving web blocking and filtering, restriction of access to online spaces, and safety messaging highlighting what young people should not do online. We argue that such strategies can be both counterproductive, and lead to a neglect of the role of public services in promoting young people's digital literacy and skills. Whilst the EU Kids Online program has highlighted that " safety initiatives to reduce risk tend also reduce opportunities " (De Haan & Livingstone, 2009), alternative strategies are needed that help professionals working with young people to move beyond a conceptual model in which the 'risks' and 'opportunities' of digital technologies are set up in opposition. In exploring how to respond to the online lives of children and young people, safety must sit alongside, and be integrated with, a broader range of considerations, including promoting positive uptake of online opportunities, promoting skills relevant to a digital economy, and encouraging the development of accessible, democratic online spaces in which rights to both play and participation, amongst others, can be realized. We suggest that the common classification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Provision, Protection and Participation rights (Cantwell, 1993) can provide the basis for such strategies, in which the protection of children and young people, the provision of appropriate services, spaces and support, and