Social Media Data
Yesterday I wrote a post that argued that we need to move beyond a focus on what parents ‘share or not share on social media’ and instead consider children’s social media data flows. But how can we really understand social media data? The truth is that we can’t. Social media data is extraordinarily complex, as it includes not […]
Against Sharenting
On the 3rd of January 2019, the mother blogger Christie Tate, wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post, where she describes her fourth-grade daughter’s reaction to finding out about her blog. When her daughter saw all the ‘baby’ pictures and intimate details shared with the world, she became very angry and upset and asked her mother to take the essays […]
Coerced Digital Participation
One afternoon in March 2017, I interviewed Alexandra. Alexandra had migrated to England, from Eastern Europe 12 years ago, and lived in a small council flat in South East London with her two children, aged 8 and 10, and her husband. In her interview she told me how difficult it was for her to adapt […]
Data Justice for Children
“I don’t understand, I feel so incompetent and frustrated. I have been reading it again and again but fail to understand it. It is clear that the company recognizes that children interact with the virtual assistants or can create their own profiles connected to the adults. Yet I can’t find an exhaustive description or explanation […]
Home Life Data and Children’s Privacy
AI virtual voice assistants, smart appliances, and security and monitoring technologies are entering our homes and re-defining our daily routines. Yet little attention is paid to the fact that once installed in our homes, these devices lead to children’s data becoming intertwined with adult profiles. The very newness of the home automation environments means we […]
Don’t share Photos of my Child
On the 23rd of May I was interviewed by The Guardian for a feature piece on the practice of ‘sharenting’. I think the article does an excellent job in analysisng the risk associated with posting information of children online. Yet I question whether sharenting is really a useful term when we look at the impact of social media in family […]
No Opting Out?
Everyday when parents join new services, download new apps, connect with others on social media or buy the latest home devices, they often sign off the terms and conditions that decide how their children’s data is used without reading them. What I am finding out when I talk to parents is that the reason why […]
BabyVeillance on Pregnancy Apps
When we think about the ways in which children’s data is collected and used we need to start from the very beginning and look at the rapid growth in use of pregnancy apps. Today, a great majority of parents download one or more of these apps on their phones and other technologies to monitor, track […]