by Ayça Atabey
At the Digital Futures Commission (DFC), we aim to recentre our increasingly digitised world on the needs of children and their rights. Our work focuses on three work streams: play in a digital world, beneficial uses of education data and guidance for innovators.
In each work stream, we consulted a wide range of stakeholders, including children themselves. Our consultations strengthened our belief that a common understanding of the terminology used by different stakeholders is critical to promote constructive deliberation relating to children’s rights in the digital world.
As such, we created this glossary of terms relating to children’s digital lives for researchers, policymakers and practitioners concerned with children’s digital lives. It focuses on the topics talked about in our three workstreams. To make the glossary, we have been informed by definitions developed across different disciplines and domains.
This glossary is useful for the DFC’s publications and blog posts. In all our work, we drew on the insights of General comment No. 25 (2021) on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment, its explanatory notes, glossary, and the Information Commissioner Office’s (ICO) UK Age Appropriate Design Code, among other valuable sources.
We hope the glossary will be useful for experts and non-experts alike to all those seeking to advance efforts to protect and empower children in today’s digital world!