Category Archives: Policy

How can we design the digital world in the best interests of children? What principles should guide innovators of digital products and services that may impact children’s lives? In the Digital Futures Commission, we asked ourselves, how can we translate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into a tool that’s practical for designers and developers? Digital technologies are part of the infrastructure of children’s daily lives. They are no longer optional for children but, indeed, crucial to…

This post originally appeared on the Digital Futures Commission website and appears here with permission. Like everything else in their life, children’s play has shifted online almost by default due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents, teachers and professionals who work with children, on the other hand, have scrambled to advise children on play with digital technologies; resources have been hard to come by, making it hard to figure out what free play in digital contexts looks like! So, what are the…

Imagine these everyday scenes: A father and his two-year-old are in their library’s bookmobile, checking out electronic and print picture books they just enjoyed at story time. Kindergartners select photos and drawings for their school’s annual multimedia slideshow. A grandmother and teacher share a laptop, clicking on videos that demonstrate Spanish-language word games for school and home. Each day, parents, caregivers, and children are building language and literacy skills for the 21st century, perhaps without even realizing it. Every community…

Our third and final installment of the “Reframing the Digital Divide” infographic series presents details about the disproportionate connectivity and access challenges that lower-income families face, particularly those of Hispanic origin headed by immigrant parents, when compared with higher-income families. Almost half (44%) of immigrant Hispanic parents never use computers, and 66% of immigrant Hispanic parents have less trusted sources of support for learning about technology than parents in other groups. Despite these challenges, immigrant Hispanic parents are most likely to…

The Cooney Center’s second installment of the “Reframing the Digital Divide” infographic series presents lower-income parents’ responses to classroom technology use. Eighty percent of surveyed parents think technology improves the quality of education, but significant groups of parents—particularly those who belong to historically marginalized groups—don’t know how much time their child spends using digital devices at school. And even though most parents (85%) whose children use classroom technology think that doing so helps students prepare for important tests, many also…

It’s not every day you get an invitation to The White House. (I’ll admit it: I’m definitely going to put my invitation in an acid-free, archival album for my children and grandchildren to see.) So it was an absolute honor to be able to attend last week’s Early STEM Learning Symposium at The White House (STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). But this experience had particular personal significance for me. I attended graduate school at Georgetown University’s Department of Psychology,…

Remarks delivered by Michael Levine at the Anytime, Anywhere Summer Learning Forum co-hosted by New America and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop in partnership with the National Summer Learning Association and the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading on June 10, 2014. Thanks Lisa, and thanks very much to New America, the Campaign for Grade Level Reading, and the National Summer Learning Association for convening the first of what I hope will be a series of conversations on the…

Last December, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the results of its two-year review of the Children’s Online Privacy Protections Act (COPPA), including a series of amendments and rule changes aimed at updating the Act in light of recent technological and social developments. This was the first time COPPA had been revised since it was first introduced in 1998, and given all the new devices, industry practices and trends in children’s online behaviour (including social networking) that have emerged over…

Every parent and concerned citizen in the U.S. has been following the national conversation about the need for a balanced response to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. One area of concern that the President and Vice President highlighted in the action plan they presented last week is the role that media portrayals of violence may have on vulnerable children’s and their communities’ well-being. The President and Vice President have urged the Centers for Disease Control…

More and more kids are involved in digital networking, to the point where mastery of this is a crucial 21st century skill. Which means more and more kids online are being exposed to cyberbullying – with, according to PEW Internet’s August 2011 Tracking Survey, 21 percent even admitting to joining in.  While younger children, our usually audience, are protected by the age guidelines of most social media platforms, tweens, teens and young adults are all at risk to be potentially affected by…