Category Archives: Commentary

2021 set off alarm bells for big tech when the courageous whistle-blowers Frances Haugen, Sophie Zhang, and Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa made front-page news of irresponsible design of technology – an issue that’s also demonstrated by 5Right’s extensive research. The digital world is entirely human-made: designers, engineers, and rule-makers can imagine and design the digital world so that children are protected from harm and their rights are upheld. A pioneering new standard shows how. Many policymakers, civil society organizations,…

This post originally appeared on the Digital Futures Commission website and appears here with permission.   Last fall, the Digital Futures Commission (DFC) launched ‘Playful by Design: Free play in a digital world.’ The report looks at a crucial important aspect of children’s development – free play – and at how digital products and services succeed and fail in facilitating it. At our launch event, Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE and Professor Sonia Livingstone OBE were joined by key experts in the field of free play who discussed and explored our reporting as…

Daniel Kelley is the associate director for the Center of Technology and Society at the Anti-Defamation League. Daniel joins Laura and Jordan to discuss how online hate manifests in online spaces, particularly in the online games world, and how positive steps are being taken by civil society and technology companies to combat these issues.

Amanda LaTasha Armstrong talks with Jordan and Laura about race, feminism, the digital divide, and the future of EdTech on the #IntotheDigitalFuture podcast.

Kimberly Voll is a game developer, researcher, and co-founder of the Fair Play Alliance. In this episode, Kimberly joins Laura and Jordan to talk about her earliest experiences with video games, her interest in artificial intelligence, understanding games as social ecosystems, and the challenges of combating toxicity in digital spaces.

This transcript of the Into the Digital Future podcast has been edited for clarity. Please listen to the full episode here and learn about the full series here.   Laura Higgins: The work Michael Preston does around youth perspectives and technology is really important. This is one of those conversations that’s going to appeal to all different audiences —a lot of parents, and actually for a lot of industry people, I think there’s a lot they can learn from listening…

This post was originally published on GettingSmart.com Across the United States, children are returning to school. For some, it will be their first time since March 2020. The past year and a half has been a challenging, if not devastating, disruption for families, teachers, and administrators. Now we’re all hungry for a return to normal. But at what cost? Normal, for vast numbers of American students, is not something to which we should aspire to return. For too long, our society…

This transcript of the Into the Digital Future podcast provides has been edited for clarity. Please listen to the full episode here and learn more about the series here. Alicia is the Head of Kids and Families Strategy at YouTube, where she focuses on helping children and their parents and caregivers realize their rights to more safely learn, connect, and play online. She was previously the Public Policy Lead for Kids and Families at Google, where she worked on issues…

“Pursue yourself!” Roblox developer Quazar shares a story of self-expression and identity through digital media on the #intothedigtialfuture podcast. Hear how Quazar’s Vision Park, a quirky 1980s-themed, neon theme park became a safe digital place for players to escape to and find community.

For kids during a pandemic, “down on the corner is up on the server.” Join @davidkleeman on the #IntotheDigitalFuture podcast with @jordosh & @laurahiggins_ to hear about some of the kids’ media trends of the past year. @dubit