TY - JOUR

T1 - The rights of very young children in the digital environment of the family home

T2 - findings from a UK survey of children 0-36 months and their parents

AU - Winter, Karen

AU - Flewitt, Rosie

AU - El Gemayel, Sandra

AU - Bunting, Lisa

AU - Arnott, Lorna

AU - Connolly, Paul

AU - Dalziell, Andy

AU - Gillen, Julia

AU - Goodall, Janet

AU - Lui, Min-Chen

AU - McLaughlin, Katrina

AU - Savadova, Sabina

AU - Timmins, Sarah

PY - 2025/8/12

Y1 - 2025/8/12

N2 - As digital technologies have become increasingly embedded in daily family life, there has been a growing international concern about children’s protection, provision and participation rights in a digital environment. Recognising this, the Committee on the Rights of the Child published General Comment No. 25 Children’s Rights in Relation to the Digital Environment (CRC, 2021), giving detailed advice on implementation issues in this area and calling for up-to-date research about children’s digital lives. This paper makes a significant contribution to that much-needed knowledge base by reporting the findings of an online survey conducted with parents and legal guardians (n=1,444) (hereafter parents) of children aged 0-36 months across socially and ethnically diverse families in the four UK nations. The survey represented Phase One of a larger three-phase project, ‘Toddlers, Tech and Talk’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, which aimed to build an empirically robust body of knowledge about how 0-3-year-olds' lives intersect with digital technologies at home in socially and ethnically diverse families in inner-city, urban and rural communities. The survey found that nearly all family homes have Wi-Fi connection, that many homes have a wide range of digital devices, and that very young children engage in a wide range of digital activities both with their parents and on their own. Parents’ mediation practices are shaped by parental digital practices and attitudes, with concomitant implications for children’s digital rights. Implications are highlighted.

AB - As digital technologies have become increasingly embedded in daily family life, there has been a growing international concern about children’s protection, provision and participation rights in a digital environment. Recognising this, the Committee on the Rights of the Child published General Comment No. 25 Children’s Rights in Relation to the Digital Environment (CRC, 2021), giving detailed advice on implementation issues in this area and calling for up-to-date research about children’s digital lives. This paper makes a significant contribution to that much-needed knowledge base by reporting the findings of an online survey conducted with parents and legal guardians (n=1,444) (hereafter parents) of children aged 0-36 months across socially and ethnically diverse families in the four UK nations. The survey represented Phase One of a larger three-phase project, ‘Toddlers, Tech and Talk’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, which aimed to build an empirically robust body of knowledge about how 0-3-year-olds' lives intersect with digital technologies at home in socially and ethnically diverse families in inner-city, urban and rural communities. The survey found that nearly all family homes have Wi-Fi connection, that many homes have a wide range of digital devices, and that very young children engage in a wide range of digital activities both with their parents and on their own. Parents’ mediation practices are shaped by parental digital practices and attitudes, with concomitant implications for children’s digital rights. Implications are highlighted.

KW - very young children

KW - digital technology

KW - children's rights

U2 - 10.1111/chso.12968

DO - 10.1111/chso.12968

M3 - Journal article

VL - 39

SP - 995

EP - 1011

JO - Children and Society

JF - Children and Society

SN - 0951-0605

IS - 5

ER -