Goals of the DFC research database

To be able to respond to technological and political changes in the digital environment rapidly, child rights advocates, civil society actors, and other stakeholders need research evidence.

The goal of our database is to support the realisation of children’s rights in the digital environment by sharing knowledge and research insights in the public domain while respecting copyright and fair use principles.

The database will be launched in October 2024 and will be publicly accessible without registration or log-in.

What is included in the database?

The research database is a free online public library hosted on the Zotero platform. It contains carefully curated recent sources with summaries, key takeaways and methodological notes. The sources include peer-reviewed academic publications and reports published by international organisations whose work substantially concerns children’s rights.

The database is searchable and can be navigated through key topics, such as AI, inequalities, risks, harms, mental health, education, parental controls, resilience, tech infrastructure, advertising, media literacy, cyberbullying, EdTech, digital divides, minoritised children (e.g., children with disabilities, marginalised groups, neurodiverse children, etc.), online safety, online child sexual exploitations and abuse (OCSEA), and others.

How was the database created?

We developed a process for identifying, selecting and adding the sources to the database which was guided by the DFC Management Committee and involved consultations with members of our Advisory Board the the wider DFC community. This included developing criteria for selecting the database sources and a process of quality assurance.

The work on the research database has been carried out by a team of DFC researchers led by Dr Didem Özkul, with entries also created by Gazal Shekhawat, Saumyadeep Mandal and Zichen Hu. We also carried out an online consultation inviting contributions and suggestions from our wider network.

We are continuously adding sources to the database. If you would like to suggest sources, you can do this via our email info@dfc-centre.net.  

Using the database and crediting sources

The database is made possible thanks to research, reports, and other credible sources, which we have carefully selected and summarised. Please make sure to acknowledge the original authors of those documents. Additionally, we welcome a citation to our database if you have relied substantially on our curations, tagging and notes. The information about included publications in the database is of three types:

• Abstracts of articles written by academic authors: please cite the original source
• Executive summaries of reports by authors or organisations: please cite the original source
• DFC notes (summaries, key takeaways, and notes on methodology): please cite the DFC

Header image: photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels