DFC research insights day

13 Mar 2026 | 10 am - 4 pm | Old Building, LSE & Online

Join us for the DFC Research Insights Day, where we will share new evidence and emerging findings on children’s digital lives to spark fresh conversations and collaboration across research, policy, and practice.

Registration

ICA Pre-conference 2026: children's rights under pressure in a digital world

4 Jun 2026 | 8.30 - 12.00pm (UTC+2) | Cape Town, South Africa (in-person only) 

The pre-conference welcomes scholars and practitioners to discuss children's rights in digital environments and explore how research can inform policy, regulation and design. Ann Skelton, former Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, will be delivering a keynote and original research studies from a variety of disciplines will be presented.

Register for the preconference, or find out more. 

IDC 2026: Designing ethical and rights-respecting child-centred AI for learning

June 22nd – 25th 2026 | Brighton, United Kingdom

The IDC is accepting submissions until the 6th April 2026

AI systems increasingly shape children’s learning, from adaptive platforms and classroom analytics to GenAI used for creative and academic support. Alongside promises of personalisation and engagement, these systems raise persistent concerns for children’s rights, including privacy, play, protection from commercial exploitation, and non-discrimination in the presence of bias. This workshop focuses on designing rights-respecting, child-centred AI for learning. Bringing together researchers, designers, educators, policymakers, and practitioners, it examines how concepts such as privacy, participation, play, and fairness can be operationalised in AI design. 

Read more about the conference 

General comment No. 25's 5th Anniversary

2nd March 2026 | 11-12:30 | Online

Join the Digital Futures for Children centre and 5Rights Foundation, where we will mark the anniversary of General comment No 25, launching two reports. Recording available soon. Find out more about the event. 

EdTech at the crossroads of pedagogy vs profit

12 February 2026 | 6.30 - 8 pm | Centre Building, LSE and online | Followed by a drinks reception

Our public lecture was a timely exploration of how rapidly expanding EdTech is reshaping education, and at times undermining children’s rights, revealing the evidence behind current practices and charting a path toward a more equitable, accountable, and child-centred digital future for learning.

Speakers: Sandra El Gemayel, Julian Sefton-Green, Rhys Spence, Jen Persson 

Chair: Sonia Livingstone

Watch the video and listen to the podcast

More about the event

DFC winter meet-up: research database

15 Jan 2026 | 9-10 am GMT | Online

We heard the latest updates to the Global Research Database, which is now 300 entries strong, and facilitated debates across practicioners. Access the database. 

Left out and Misunderstood: children in digital policies

16 Dec 2025 | 4 - 5:30pm (GMT) | LSE Old Building & Online 

Digital transformation and inclusion policies are reshaping societies worldwide, yet the ways in which children are recognised - or excluded - within these agendas remain poorly understood. This event presents new cross-national analyses of over 300 policies from 35 countries and organisations, offering critical insights into how children’s rights, agency, and inequalities are framed in the pursuit of digital futures. Watch the launch of the findings or access the reports.

Speakers: Ellen Helsper and Shivani Rao

Respondent: Steven Vosloo

World Children’s Day: digital futures for children – children’s rights under pressure in the digital environment

20 November 2025

Drawing from UN treaty monitoring, national policies, regional frameworks and civil society advocacy, the panel will consider how international law influences policy and practice, recognising progress, obstacles and pathways for change.

Panel: Gerison Lansdown, Kim R Sylwander and Gastón Wright. Chair: Sonia Livingstone

Watch the video and listen to the podcast

More about the event

Does Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) affect children’s rights? Insights from children in the global South

16 Sept 2025

RIGHTS.AI: a child-rights-focused project that shines a light on children’s experiences with GenAI. At the webinar, we launched five reports, spotlighting our new findings from Brazil, India, Kenya and Thailand.

Speakers: Ivelise Fortim, Jennifer Kaberi, Kruakae Pothong, Usha Raman, Manon Baert and Mariya Stoilova. Chair: Sonia Livingstone

Watch the webinar

2nd International Conference on Children’s Rights: Artificial Intelligence, Online Safety and Children’s Rights in the Digital Environment

9-11 Sept 2025 | Stellenbosch University

The 2nd International Conference on Children's Rights invited people to reflect on how the proliferation of digital technologies and access to the internet are (re)shaping the exercise of children's rights. The conference came 4 years after the publication of the UN General comment No. 25, which recognises that children's rights extend to the digital environment.

DFC summer meet-up 

30 Jun 2025

The DFC hosted a nuanced conversation about children's rights and the digital environment. Read the event report.

Empowerment, safety and equity: children's visions of rights-respecting digital futures

21 Jun 2025

One in three internet users is a child, yet the digital world was not designed with children in mind. As we witness an acceleration of the development of technologies (like generative AI), tech regulation often prioritises speed over human and children’s rights. In this event for the LSE Festival, we brought together children's voices from around the world to identify possible futues where children’s rights are upheld and technology serves humanity sustainably. Watch the recording or listen to the podcast.

Missed the DFC at the LSE festival? Read our event report.

Teens, sexting and image-based sexual abuse: a child rights approach

20 May 2025

Although evidence suggests that ‘sexting’ is considered a normal practice among teens, there are, nonetheless, inherent risks. Teens who sext run a range of legal, financial, health, educational and sociosexual risks, yet still they do it. Apart from image-based sexual harassment and abuse, teens also face emerging risks such as AI-informed deepfakes and sextortion. In this public event, four speakers will discuss empirical findings from three different countries: Australia, Sweden and the UK.

Leila Green, Edith Cowan University 

Jessica Ringrose, UCL

Kim Sylwander, Digital Futures for Children centre

Giselle Woodley, Edith Cowan University

Chair: Sonia Livingstone, Digital Futures for Children centre

Watch the lecture or listen to the podcast

Children and AI Design Code: virtual launch

29 April 2025

The Children and AI Design Code is designed to embed children's rights in the foundations of AI; at each point of the AI lifecycle. The code gives practical guidance and guidelines for companies to ensure that children are not exposed to more risk of harm.

At the launch of the Children and AI Design Code, we were joined by:

• Baroness Beeban Kidron, Chair of the 5Rights Foundation and the Digital Futures for Children centre, and a crossbench peer in the UK’s House of Lords.
• Professor Sonia Livingstone, Director of the Digital Futures for Children centre, Professor of Social Psychology at the London School of Economics Department of Media and Communications.
• Professor Ali Hessami, VC & Process Architect, IEEE Ethics Certification Programme for Autonomous & Intelligent Systems, Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers. 
• Amandeep Singh Gill, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies.
• Michael O’Flaherty, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.
• The Honourable Neema Lugangira MP, Chair of the African Parliamentarians’ Network for Internet Governance, Member of Parliament, Tanzania. 

Watch the virtual launch recording

Doughty Street Chambers - Annual Children's Rights Lecture

13 March 2025

Sonia Livingstone presented Children’s Rights Apply Online as Offline – or Do They? with guest young person Nicole Stoilova.

The lecture argues that we must take a holistic approach when discussing children's rights in the digital environment. This means we must consider the full range of children's rights and take into account how children interact with technology (e.g. not just screen time).

Watch the annual rights lecture 

The way forward for EdTech and children's rights

5 February 2025

Mark West from UNESCO discussed future avenues for EdTech and children’s rights, drawing on findings from the influential report "An EdTech tragedy? Educational technologies and school closures in the time of COVID-19". 

Sonia Livingstone and Ayca Atabey presented the DFC's work on children in the digital environment, EdTech and AI. Experts in children's rights were invited to contribute discussion points and evidence.

Read the event report EdTech tragedy: DFC discussion

Mark West works in UNESCO’s Education Sector, he is the UNESCO lead for the Gateways to Public Digital Learning Initiative and has authored numerous notable publications.

DFC online meet-up: How do we engage children?

10 December 2024

A platform that allowed practitioners to share good practice and learn from others. Participants from around the globe gave insights into children's rights, social media, and the engagement of children in research and advocacy. 

Read the event report: Meetup winter 2024 

DFC research insights day

29 November 2024

A day of talks from colleagues and collaborators at the DFC on our latest research and collaborative dialogue about children's rights in the digital environment. Download a detailed version of the agenda including talk titles and more information about speakers here.

Speakers: Baroness Beeban Kidron, Steve Wood, Dr Kim Sylwander, Professor Ellen Helsper, Shivani Rao, Dr Ivelise Fortim, Dr Mariya Stoilova, Ayça Atabey, Alexandra Evans, Colette Collins-Walsh
Chair: Professor Sonia Livingstone

Read the event report: Research insights day 2024 

Is the internet good for children? (Public lecture)

27 November 2024

Speaker: Sonia Livingstone
Chair: Ellen Helsper

Public anxiety about children’s digital lives and wellbeing is reaching a fever pitch, marking a notable turnaround from the decades-long efforts to ensure children are fully digitally included, literate and empowered. While arguments rage over what’s wrong with ‘screen time,’ ‘online harms,’ and data-driven forms of exploitation, this lecture hosted by the Digital Futures for Children centre made the case for a rights-based approach that puts children’s needs at the forefront of the design and deployment of digital services.

Sonia Livingstone argued: "A recent government report raised the question, is food good for children? It may seem odd to ask this, till you consider how food can be bad for them. Then you get the point: it’s the system that’s broken, in many ways – from invisible salt, sugar and fat content, unequal access to affordable vegetables, lack of resources to cook from scratch, junk food marketing, etc. The answer is not to ban food, though likely to restrict certain kinds of food. But clearly, multiple forms of intervention are needed to improve children’s lives, including fixing the broken food system. We can say the same of the internet. Is it good for children? It could be. It should be. But first we have to fix the broken system that is undermining children’s digital lives in so many ways. Our DigitalFutures4Children research proposes Child Rights by Design as a constructive way forward."

Watch the lecture

Listen to the podcast

Academic roundtable: social media and child's rights

15 November 2024 

The DFC hosted an academic roundtable discussing children's rights and social media with Australia's eCommissioner, Julie Inman Grant.

Read the event summary: Roundtable on emerging evidence on child online safety

Smartphone policies in schools: an online workshop for secondary school teachers

The DFC held a workshop for secondary school teachers where they learnt what the evidence says and explored how smartphone policies can best be designed from a child rights perspective.

The workshop was CPD-certified and part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2024 - Our Digital Lives.

Read the review of the evidence

Read the workshop report

DFC summer meet-up

24 July 2024

Friends and collaborators from all over the world joined to discuss ongoing DFC projects and share experiences and suggestions.

Read our reflections from the summer meet-up.

Access the presentations: General comment No. 25 and DFC research database

Children’s online marketing harms: roundtable

11 June 2024

The DFC hosted an in-person academic roundtable focusing on evidence of the harmful impact of online marketing on children and young people. The discusison covered negative outcomes from marketing tactics such as obesity, body dissatisfaction, and unsafe behaviours.

Read our reflections: Online marketing harms: roundtable reflections 

Tech tantrums - when tech meets humanity (Public lecture)

5 June 2024

Speaker: Baroness Beeban Kidron
Chair: Professor Sonia Livingstone

In this talk, Beeban Kidron, best known for her global impact on tech regulation to benefit children, set out why issues around AI must not be left to tech experts and unaccountable corporations during her lively and well-attended DFC public lecture, chaired by Sonia Livingstone.

Watch the lecture

Listen to the podcast

Read related blogs: AI companies have to become democratically accountable and Tech tantrums – when tech meets humanity

Impact of regulation on children’s digital lives | Report launch 

20 May 2024

New legislation and regulations are driving social media companies to make child safety and privacy changes, finds our new report by Steve Wood of PrivacyX Consulting and ex-ICO Deputy Commissioner. The report was launched on 20th May 2024 at the House of Lords.

Read the report

Read the blog

Digital Media Use in Early Childhood: Birth to Six | Book launch

7 May 2024

The DFC launched Digital Media in Early Childhood: Birth to Six with a lively and well attended event in LSE’s Shaw Library.

Speakers: Professor Sonia Livingstone, Professor Susan Danby, Professor Lelia Green and Professor Brian O’Neill

DFC celebrated the launch of Digital media use in early childhood with the authors and discussants. The book draws on a three-year research project examining the realities of under six-year-olds' experiences of digital technologies in the UK and Australia. At the launch, the authors presented the key arguments and reflect on a child rights-informed approach to early years’ digital lives.

More about the book

Order the book 

Launching: Digital Futures for Children centre

21 November 2023

The official launch of Digital Futures for Children centre – a research collaboration between 5Rights Foundation and the Department of Media and Communications at London School of Economics and Political Science – you can find out more here.

Watch the webinar

Read about the event