The Digital Futures Commission has now concluded. Our new project is the Digital Futures for Children centre, joint with 5Rights Foundation and London School of Economics and Political Science.
While we also presented our work on Child Rights by Design, we have selected this as the focus for our international webinar.
We are delighted that Mikiko Otani, Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, will speak at the webinar, chaired by Baroness Beeban Kidron. This is not least because, in developing Child Rights by Design, building on current ideas of Privacy by Design, Safety by Design, and our own Playful by Design, we took our lead from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s authoritative statement, General Comment No. 25, on how to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in relation to the digital environment.
To explore how innovators, policymakers and NGOs can advance children’s best interests in a digital world, recognising international developments and challenges, the webinar will include a panel chaired by Professor Sonia Livingstone alongside panellists Dorothy Gordon, Michael Preston, one of the DFC commissioners, and Pedro Hartung.
The webinar will also include a snapshot of our in-person conference in the form of a video created by the Gifted Young Generation, who hosted the event on the day.
The webinar will take place on 15th May 2023 at 5-6.30 pm (BST). Find out more about our speakers and register for your place below. Please join us!
Mikiko Otani is the Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. She is an international human rights lawyer based in Tokyo where she practices family law with focus on children’s rights. Ms Otani is also the Council Member of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute and served as Chair of the Committee on International Human Rights of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.Pedro Hartung is a Children’s Rights lawyer and serves as the Executive Director of the Alana Foundation, which aims to globally build a better present and future for children, including in the digital environment. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Law and acted as Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School and its Child Advocacy Program. He also works as counsel at the Brazilian National Justice Human Rights Council.Dorothy Gordon is the Chair of the UNESCO Information For All Programme and Board member of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, which facilitates the use of technology to enhance inclusive education. She is a strong gender advocate and supports the Open Movement and UNESCO’s ROAM Principles. She has worked in the field of international development and technology for over thirty years and is recognised as a leading technology activist and consultant on policy, education, technology and society globally with a special focus on Africa.Michael Preston, PhD is the Executive Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, a research and innovation lab that works to advance children’s learning in the digital age. Previously he led K-12 computer science efforts at CSforALL and CSNYC, digital initiatives at the New York City Department of Education, and educational software projects at Columbia University. He earned a PhD in Cognitive Science in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.Sonia Livingstone DPhil (Oxon), FBA, FBPS, FAcSS, FRSA, OBE is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is the author of 20 books on children’s online opportunities and risks, including “The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age”. Sonia has advised the UK government, European Commission, European Parliament, Council of Europe and other national and international organisations on children’s rights, risks and safety in the digital age.Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE is the Founder and Chair of 5Rights. She is a Crossbench member of the House of Lords and sits on the Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee. She is a Commissioner for UNESCO’s Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development where she is a member of the Working Group on Child Online Safety; a member of Unicef’s AI group; and sits on the Council on Extended Intelligence.
