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 […]
The Child Data Citizen Book with MIT Press
On the 15th of January, I signed the book contract with MIT Press, and I am really looking forward to submit the Child | Data | Citizen book on the 1st of August 2019. The Child | Data | Citizen book will explore the datafication of children. Children, today, are the very first generation of citizens to be […]
Data Injustice and Ethnographic Sampling?
There is something profoundly unequal and unjust about the different ways in which dataveillance and digital profiling impacts white, middle-class families on the one hand, and ethnic minority, migrant or low-income families on the other. Data technologies and automated systems are not equal or fair. This emerges beautifully in Eubanks’ book (2018), Automating Inequality. It […]
Datafied Children: The Research
In November 2018, the UK Children’s Commissioner published a report warning that children are being datafied from birth. In the last few days we have seen a plurality of press articles talking about datafied children. But what does it really mean to talk about the datafication of children? What can we learn from the research on the topic? […]
Data and Citizenship California Tour!
I am delighted to share with you the news that Dr. Lina Dencik (Cardiff University, Data Justice Lab) and I will be on a California speaking tour on Data and Citizenship. “As more and more social activity and human behavior is being turned into data points that can be tracked, collected and analyzed, we need […]
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 […]
Alexa do you Care?
J: My son wakes up and says “Alexa what time is it?” And she replies. He has conversations with her. So he goes and tell her very silly things like ‘you are such a goof’ or ‘”you are stupid” or “you are dumb” and things like that, and she replies “Well you are not so […]