Keynote address presented at the Connect! Childhood, Wellbeing and Risk event, University of Bath, UK, 22 April 2014.

1. Digital natives or
digital victims?
Children and the
online world
Deborah Lupton, News &
Media Research
Centre, University of
Canberra

3.  ‘Arguably, no one is monitored more
closely in our society than children and
young people.’
Surveillance Technologies and Children
report, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of
Canada, October 2012

4. Bringing interests together
digitised
children
parenting
cultures
sociology of
pregnancy
surveillance
studies
digital
sociology

5. Ways to digitise children
 Pregnancy/childbirth/parenting websites
 Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube
 ‘Mummy blogs’
 Ultrasounds: 2D and 3/4D
 Digital photography/archives
 Baby monitors
 Nanny cams, webcams in daycare centres & schools
 Wearable devices & toys with GPS and bodymetrics trackers
 RFIDS
 CCTV cameras & fingerprint scanners
 Predictive analytics/big data on school performance
 Trace data from children’s online use
 Software for tracking children’s online use by parents

6. It begins with the positive pregnancy test …

7. Continues with the ultrasounds …

9. and pregnancy tracking devices …

10. Then childbirth …

11. Tracking infant development

12. and biometrics …

13. and all the milestones.

14. Keeping tabs in children’s health …

16. their location …

17. and trying to ensure their safety

18. Into the school years
 RFIDs
 CCTV cameras (85% of UK schools)
 digitised fingerprint scanners
 digital tracking of school meals
 school tracking of children’s internet use
 predictive analytics
 educational data-mining
 parental monitoring of SMS messages

19. Digital educational tools valorised

21. Meanwhile, concern is growing
 Childhood obesity
 Cyberbullying/trolling
 Paedophiles/stalkers
 Mental health concerns
 Social skills
 Loss of face-to-face contact
 Self-esteem
 Over-sharing

22. Discourses of contemporary parenting
 Intensive parenting
 Parents as responsible for children’s
wellbeing and health
 The desire to manage risk/control fate

23. Discourses of childhood
 The precious child
 The vulnerable child
 The uncivilized child
 The pure child

24. Discourses of digital technologies
 Big data as key to information
 Tracking devices as accurate and
producing valuable data
 Children as digital natives
 Digital tech as saviour and threat

25. Things to think about
 Children’s privacy, dignity and consent
 The over-monitored child
 Children’s capacity to develop digital
literacy
 Surveillance as a form of control
 How big data will be used
 How predictive analytics will shape futures
 The permanence of digital data archives