Launch of findings: 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.
Speakers: Ellen Helsper and Shivani Rao (LSE), Respondent: Steven Vosloo (UNICEF)
Info and registration: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/digitalfuturesforchildrencentre/1944910
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New report: The impact of General comment No. 25 in the UNCRC monitoring process
Since 2021, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has reshaped its oversight of how governments address children's rights in the digital environment. This study analyses 79 country reviews to track that evolution, examining how states, civil society, National Human Rights Institutions and UN bodies raise digital issues, and how the Committee integrates General Comment No. 25 into its questioning and recommendations.
On World Children's Day, the DFC launched its new report. Read the report and watch the launch (panel: Gerison Lansdown, Kim R Sylwander and Gastón Wright; chair: Sonia Livingstone).
Read the report:
https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/our-work/impact-gc25
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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)
Call for extended abstracts (up to 1500 words): deadline 15 Dec 2025 (12:00 CET)
Organised with the ICA divisions Children, Adolescence and Media and Communication Law and Policy, the DFC welcomes original research studies addressing the theme of children's rights in the digital environment, from all disciplines, employing empirical methods, relevant theory, and contributing to children's rights in the digital environment, especially Global South perspectives.
In the pre-conference, scholars and practitioners will explore how research can inform policy, regulation and design with children in digital environments, framed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's General comment No. 25 on Children's Rights in Relation to the Digital Environment.
More info:
https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/events/ica-preconference/call-for-submissions
Professor Sonia Livingstone OBE, FBA, FAcSS, FBPS, FRSA
FAW.7.01M, Department of Media and Communications, LSE, London WC2A 2AE
Bio www.sonialivingstone.net @Livingstone_S
Digital Futures for Children (DFC) centre www.Digital-Futures-For-Children.net/
Book Parenting for a Digital Future: How hopes and fear about technology shape children's lives
Zoom lse.zoom.us/my/sonialivingstone