As we come to the end of our series on child rights and technology, we take a look at some of the main themes that have emerged and our readers’ thoughts on them. The full series can be found here.
Privacy
As GPS tracking devices for children become ever more affordable, and fingerprint scanners replace ID cards in schools, technology is undeniably changing the shape of privacy for a generation often referred to as ‘digital natives’.
This is no more obvious than on Facebook. Baby pictures once confined to the private pages of family photo albums are now shared publicly. A 2015 study by Internet company Nominet found UK children will feature in around 1,000 online photos before their fifth birthday.
What will the impacts be for a new generation whose childhood has played out on the Internet? One reader said they posted one picture of their baby on Facebook before deciding to quit the social media site completely:
However, @ursuppe thinks there’s little harm in putting baby photos online:
I can't help feeling that the harm caused by having a stranger see a baby photo is entirely imaginary. I doubt if Princess Charlotte will sue her parents for allowing her baby photos to be seen by millions. Newspapers run baby pic competitions all the time and child performers appear in all sorts of media.
Children are part of society and shouldn't be kept from it out of what often comes across as a superstitious fear of letting any stranger know they exist. That doesn't mean that endless child photos are interesting, just that they don't need to be hidden from view. We were all children sitting on potties once- the fact that the is now photographic evidence of that doesn't matter.
Social media safety
46% of British parents worry that they don’t know what their children are doing online, according to research (pdf) commissioned for anti-virus software company Norton.
With cyerbullying on the rise, reports of drug dealers on Instagram and anonymous app Kik linked to a murder investigation, can children truly be safe online?
Social media sites are becoming more active in protecting their users through functions like reporting tools, and technology companies and software providers are building ever more sophisticated parental control packages that limit which corners of the internet children can access.
We asked readers if spying on a child’s internet search history was an effective way of keeping them safe. Reader @Mariane Bicho believes “surveillance is never a solution”:
While I understand parent's concern to monitor their children's online activities, I believe that endorsing such practice teaches them that surveillance is OK, and that as long as it is done for one's own protection, snooping is fine, which is a terrible thing to teach them. Surveillance is never a solution. Parental controls may help with younger children, but once they are savvy enough they'll find ways around them.
The internet, like the middle of a busy street, can be a dangerous place. You wouldn't let your children play there by themselves, so there is no reason why a young child should be left alone with a computer. Cory Doctorow recommends ways around this: rather than having personal computers and laptops confided to the kids' rooms, have them in a communal area so you know what you'r kids are looking at without having to secretly spy on them. It's tricky, but people can live without their computer in their room.
19-year-old @Mike agrees:
Being 19 years old I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. My parents have never read my phone nor monitored my internet usage. I'm glad they didn't, it is a GROSS invasion of the privacy that everyone deserves.
What they did do, is teach me to stay safe and make safe decisions. The internet is a wonderful thing, not some dark alleyway in the back end of no where. At the end of the day it comes down to this.
Teaching your kids is effective parenting. Arguable the most effective.
Spying on your kids is lazy parenting. LAZY.
Childhood development
It’s estimated that three-quarters of UK children now spend less time outside than prison inmates. With broadband added to the Oxford Junior Dictionary, and beech, bluebell and buttercup dropped, there is little doubt that childhood is changing.
Low-tech baby monitors are being swapped for hi-tech wearables that monitor a baby’s breathing and heart rate; children’s board games have evolved into smartphone apps; and Barbie now lives in a Wi-Fi enabled house. We asked readers if they felt smart toys were making parents lazy. @kidvidkid thought it was a ridiculous suggestion:
What a ridiculous headline and premise: "Will smart toys make parents lazy?"
If a parent sends a kid outide to play soccer, is the ball making the parent lazy? If a child carries and cuddles a stuffed animal, does the stuffie make the parent lazy?
Children's lives have room for many things, and it's up to parents to be sure they help their children live in balance. But, to blame a toy - from the most high-tech to the most traditional - for being engaging and enjoyable...now THAT's lazy.
@Busymom4 advised delaying access to technology for as long as possible while stressing the need for balance:
Hate to say it but many parents are lazy! It's easy to hand a kid a tech gadget. My question would be is that same child going to go out and play soccer, ride a bike, play with other kids, climb trees, build Legos as well as play with smart toy? I agree all kids need balance. Another problem is that very few children play with tech gadgets for small amounts of time, and that time does end up taking time away from other more valuable childhood activities. Parents give their kids devices because it's easy and keeps the kid occupied, and quiet! They don't acknowledge or know the long term effects of too much screen time on a child's development. Parents nowadays defer to the easiest option, giving their kids gadgets in the car, waiting rooms and at home. The best advice I can give is delay access to tech gadgets for as long as possible and let your child develop other REAL interests and skills. I don't know one family that doesn't complain about the amount of time their kids spend on screens, or regret the decision to give their kids smartphones, etc...
Ultimately the importance of balance has played out across our whole series on child rights and technology. While it’s true that technology can open young people up to new dangers, Larry Magid, CEO of ConnectSafely.org, reminds us that young people can also use it as a force for good, writing in his December op-ed:
While social media has been linked with the radicalisation of some teens, young people are able to use online platforms to connect with each other, promoting understanding rather than violence and extremism. Nobel prize winning youth activist, Malala Yousafzai, for example, has advised social media is the easy place to start taking action against injustice.
This article was amended on 9 July 2020 to remove some personal information.
We had a baby 3 and a half years ago, it took one picture of my child posted to Facebook for me to realise that I was potentially abusing some kind of human right of my child. I advised my partner to remove it and we both decided just to quit Facebook altogether. I just hope that the small bits of info we initially posted doesn't in some way crop up in the future. Everybody I spoke thought that I was being daft, as Facebook is just a bit of fun, but who knows what private issues may be compromised in the future by the indiscretion of parents posting info/photos Willy nilly on the internet, from myself being a daft 25 year old when Facebook hit its stride to how ubiquitous it is now, there's got to be a better way to engage with 'social media'. Some of the things I'm privy to with the way colleagues and by extension there families attach themselves to FB etc, I'm appalled on a daily basis, if I didn't already think I'd taken the best position at the time, I certainly have had my prudish beliefs justified since.