RITEC: Prioritizing Child Well-Being in Digital Design | IGF 2023 Open Forum #52

Audience

During the discussion, different concerns and questions were raised regarding various aspects of children’s digital life. One of the concerns highlighted was the issue of tokenism and the need for genuine child participation. The Belgian Safer Internet Center, which operates under the InSafe umbrella, was mentioned as actively working towards achieving a true representational group of young people. The sentiment expressed was one of concern, aiming to avoid using children as tokens and instead promoting their meaningful involvement in decision-making processes.

Another concern raised was the need to provide guidance on the evolving capacities of children. Jutta Kroll from the German Digital Opportunities Foundation mentioned the existence of a special group on age-appropriate design within the European Commission, indicating a recognition of the importance of tailoring digital content and experiences to suit children’s developmental stages. The sentiment expressed in this regard was one of questioning, suggesting a desire to better understand how to navigate the evolving digital landscape in a way that benefits children’s well-being and educational development.

The importance of involving parents in their children’s digital life was also emphasized during the discussion. Amy from ECHPAD International highlighted the importance of parents being actively engaged in their children’s gaming and digital experiences. Additionally, Carmen, a parent, expressed the view that online life is not a necessity for children, underscoring the critical role of parental education in safeguarding their well-being in the digital world. This sentiment emphasized the need for parents to stay informed and involved to ensure their children’s online safety and well-being.

Another worrisome issue identified was the lack of pedagogical understanding among developers. Carmen expressed concern regarding developers’ limited experience in educational theory and practice, highlighting the importance of incorporating pedagogical expertise into the development of digital content and platforms aimed at children. This worry reflected the need for developers to have a deep understanding of how children learn and develop so that digital resources can effectively promote quality education.

Finally, the speakers questioned the next steps to address these concerns. David from the Association for NGOs Insurance Group in the Asia-Pacific region specifically raised the issue of creating guidelines for parents, educators, and workers. This standpoint emphasized the necessity of establishing clear guidelines and engagement strategies to support parents, educators, and those working with children in effectively navigating the digital landscape and ensuring children’s well-being and educational growth.

Overall, the speakers stressed the importance of promoting online safety and well-being for children. Genuine child participation, appropriate guidance for evolving capacities, parental involvement, pedagogical understanding among developers, and the creation of guidelines for parents, educators, and workers emerged as key areas of focus. These observations highlighted a collective desire to ensure a positive and supportive digital environment for children, where their rights, education, and safety are prioritized.

Shuli Gilutz

Digital play is increasingly recognised as a crucial component of children’s well-being and development. Research has shown that digital play can provide positive experiences that promote children’s overall welfare. It is considered one of the most important ways for children to interact with the world. However, there is a pressing need for the design industry to prioritise the creation of safe, engaging, and beneficial digital play experiences specifically tailored for children.

Many designers are eager to create positive and empowering digital play experiences for children, but they lack the necessary training and guidance to do so effectively. Collaborative efforts are underway to work with designers and understand their requirements. The aim is to develop a comprehensive guide that will enable them to create positive digital experiences for children.

The project is built upon research, and the current stage involves consulting with designers from companies across the globe. The ultimate goal is to provide businesses with a guide that is grounded in real data about children and technology. The team hopes that this will dispel myths and misconceptions surrounding the topic and educate designers on best practices.

Creating a guide for businesses based on real data about children and technology is crucial in ensuring that child-friendly digital experiences are prioritised. By aggregating information from global companies, the team plans to develop a prototype that will serve as a valuable resource for designers. The final product, expected to be released in the autumn, will provide designers with the knowledge and insights necessary to create safe and beneficial digital play experiences for children.

In addition to the design industry’s responsibilities, there also needs to be a broader shift in designing for children. Instead of viewing it as a mere regulatory requirement, there should be an understanding that this is the future. Designers must embrace the challenge of creating a fully holistic environment for children to thrive in, focusing not only on safety but also on their overall well-being.

Companies that fail to adapt their design approaches to meet the needs of children may ultimately be left behind. The industry must pivot its perspective and prioritise designing for children. This shift in approach is vital to ensure that children have access to digital experiences that enhance their development and well-being.

Beyond the design industry’s role, parents also play a crucial part in supporting their children’s digital play experiences. Engaging in digital games with their children helps parents understand the gaming world and actively participate in their children’s activities, thereby contributing to their well-being. Furthermore, direct discussions between parents and children about concerns and motivations are proven to be effective in helping children understand the importance of activities such as playing outside or balancing their digital and non-digital pursuits. These conversations enhance children’s understanding and overall well-being.

In conclusion, digital play is a critical aspect of children’s well-being and development. The design industry needs to prioritise the creation of safe, engaging, and beneficial digital play experiences. Efforts are underway to develop a guide based on real data about children and technology for businesses to ensure child-friendly design practices. There needs to be a broader shift in designing for children, viewing it as the future and creating a fully holistic environment. Companies that fail to adapt may be left behind. Parental engagement and direct discussions with children are essential in supporting their well-being.

Adam Ingle

LEGO Group is committed to prioritising the well-being of children in their digital products. They actively avoid incorporating addictive qualities or manipulative design patterns into their games. By doing so, LEGO ensures that children can engage with their digital experiences in a healthy and balanced manner.

In addition to designing responsible digital products, LEGO Group is taking the initiative to improve overall digital experiences for children. They are collaborating with UNICEF to drive this effort and aim to elevate industry best practices. By working together with other industry leaders, LEGO Group intends to create a coalition that will promote better digital experiences for children worldwide.

Recognising the online safety crisis, LEGO Group is actively promoting proactive measures and cultural change within the digital industry. They understand that the failure to invest in children’s well-being can lead to potential harm and a loss of trust in the digital industry as a whole. By addressing the crisis head-on, LEGO Group demonstrates their commitment to protecting children and building a safer online environment.

Adam Ingle, a prominent advocate for children’s well-being, believes in a holistic approach to digital design. He emphasises the importance of not only focusing on safety and protection but also nurturing children’s creativity and imagination. Ingle argues that an overemphasis on addressing online harms could result in sterile digital environments. He believes that a certain level of flexibility and age-appropriate design is necessary to create engaging and beneficial digital experiences for children.

Moreover, Ingle calls for governments and policymakers to establish regulatory frameworks that incentivise the development of productive digital experiences for kids. He highlights that current discussions primarily revolve around addressing online harms and urges for a broader perspective that considers the impact on children’s well-being. Government intervention, according to Ingle, can play a crucial role in fostering child well-being in the realm of digital design.

To implement age-appropriate design, LEGO is actively involved in the EU’s AADC (Age Appropriate Design Code) method. This method allows tailoring privacy policies, default settings, and aspects of game design to cater to the specific social interaction needs of different age groups.

When it comes to teenagers, finding the right balance between their social connections online and the associated risks is crucial. It is acknowledged that some level of social connection is necessary for teens’ well-being, as it enables them to form organic friendships online. However, measures can be implemented to mitigate the risks associated with teens’ online interactions, such as disabling certain features for younger age groups and promoting online safety education.

In conclusion, LEGO Group’s commitment to prioritising children’s well-being in their digital products is evident through their conscious design choices and collaboration with UNICEF. They actively address the online safety crisis and advocate for a holistic approach to digital design that balances safety, protection, creativity, and imagination. Adam Ingle’s call for regulatory frameworks and the promotion of age-appropriate design further underscores the importance of creating productive and beneficial digital experiences for children.

Sabrina Vorbau

The strategy for a better internet for kids is being revised through a co-creation approach. This approach involves actively involving children by consulting them across Europe. Open discussions with adults, mainly focusing on parents and teachers, have also taken place. Additionally, experts from various fields including industry, academia, and policymakers from the national level have been invited to provide their insights. This collaborative effort ensures that the revised strategy takes into account the perspectives of all key stakeholders involved.

The importance of involving young people in policy decision-making is emphasized. By including children and young people in all aspects of the decision-making process, it ensures that the policies and tools implemented effectively meet their needs. This can be achieved through various means such as conducting consultations, involving young people in expert groups, and actively cooperating with them in organizing events like the Safer Internet Forum. This approach recognizes the expertise that young people possess and highlights the significance of their input in shaping policies that concern them.

Meaningful youth participation is considered vital in the pursuit of better internet policies. While progress has been made in this area, more efforts are needed to ensure that children and young people are involved as part of a multi-stakeholder approach. It is crucial to see young people as experts in their own right, rather than merely as a necessity in decision-making processes. By acknowledging their expertise and actively involving them, it maximizes the positive impact of policies and initiatives implemented.

Furthermore, there is a call for more stakeholders, particularly industry and policymakers, to implement the policies that have already been established. The big plus strategy, which is seen as a significant policy framework, plays a crucial role in ensuring children’s well-being. It is essential that this policy is effectively utilized and applied to achieve its intended goals. By implementing these policies and involving key stakeholders, including industry and policymakers, a more robust framework can be created to address the challenges and concerns surrounding children’s well-being in the digital world.

In conclusion, the co-creation approach to revising the strategy for a better internet for kids involves the active involvement of children, consultations with adults, and engagement of experts from various backgrounds. The inclusion of young people in policy decision-making processes is essential to ensure that their needs are effectively met. Meaningful youth participation, along with the implementation of existing policies, particularly by industry and policymakers, is crucial for achieving a safer and more inclusive internet environment for children. The big plus strategy sets the framework for addressing children’s well-being, and it is vital that it is adequately implemented.

Josie

The session concentrated on the significance of prioritising children’s views and well-being in the digital environment. Shuli Gillets, a renowned expert in child-centred design with over 20 years of experience, discussed the power and importance of designing technology that has a positive impact on children. Gillets stressed the need to focus on three key principles: protection, empowerment, and participation.

Adam Ingle, the Global Lead for Digital Policy at the LEGO Group, explained the motivation behind prioritising this issue. He argued that businesses have a responsibility to uphold high standards of safety, privacy, and security in their digital products. Ingle advocated for policies that give children more agency online and highlighted the potential risks associated with neglecting to invest in the well-being of children.

Professor Amanda Third introduced the Ritech Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children framework, which aims to create a digital world that prioritises children’s well-being. She emphasised the importance of conducting research centred around children and their experiences in the digital age. Additionally, an ongoing research project on responsible innovation in technology for children was discussed.

The session concluded with panelists sharing their thoughts on taking action to achieve positive design for children’s well-being. They underlined the need for collaboration between government, industry, and young people, as well as the importance of taking tangible steps in the pursuit of this vision.

In summary, the session provided valuable insights into the importance of prioritising children’s well-being in the digital environment. It highlighted the role that design, policy, and research play in creating a positive and secure digital space for children.

Amanda Third

The analysis examines various aspects of children’s digital play experiences, covering topics such as wellbeing, safety, participation, and design. It explores both positive and negative elements, providing a comprehensive understanding of the subject.

On the positive side, the analysis highlights the diverse and enjoyable experiences that children have with digital play, emphasising the joy and connection it brings. It also acknowledges the positive impact of creativity on children’s wellbeing, underscoring the importance of involving children in design processes.

In terms of safety, the analysis recognises that children face challenges online, including encounters with inappropriate content and potential safety issues. It emphasises the need for measures to protect children from these risks.

The analysis also explores the concept of child participation, noting its role in developing protective capabilities in children. It stresses the importance of reaching out to vulnerable and diverse children through partner organisations with expertise in engaging these groups.

A key focus of the analysis is the development of a wellbeing framework that supports the enhancement of children’s wellbeing through digital play. This framework, based on data analysis and children’s experiences, proposes indicators and measures to evaluate the impact of digital play experiences. Ongoing research involves testing the effectiveness of this framework through real-world digital play experiences.

Additionally, the analysis emphasises the importance of understanding children’s digital play experiences comprehensively. It advocates for actively listening to children and incorporating their perspectives into the design and evaluation process. This approach ensures that the framework and subsequent considerations reflect children’s actual experiences and needs.

The analysis also touches on the rights of the child as a guiding principle in this context, suggesting that any actions or decisions should be taken consciously and with a strong commitment to upholding children’s rights.

In conclusion, the analysis underscores the significance of children’s digital play experiences, providing insights into both the positive and negative aspects. It emphasises the need to ensure children’s safety, enhance their wellbeing, promote their active participation, and consider their diverse needs. Through ongoing research and the development of a wellbeing framework, the analysis aims to provide evidence-based solutions that contribute to the optimal design and enhancement of children’s digital play experiences.

Sabrina Vorbau:
really a co-creation approach where we tried, where also the European Commission endorsed, to really make it a multi-stakeholder approach when we are talking about better internet for kids. Together with our colleagues from the INSAFE and the INHOPE network, some of them are sitting here, or SAFER Internet Center, so really the contact point for us at national level, they did a consultation with children and young people across Europe, I think more than 750 children were consulted on their needs, on their priorities, and this was really the foundation of the revision of the strategy, to really take it to the young people first, to understand what they’re doing online, what they’re concerned about, but also what they enjoy online. In addition to this, we then also did an open consultation with adults, so mainly focusing on parents and teachers. This went mainly through social media, we developed a survey, we also translated the survey in all the EU languages, and we gave opportunity to teachers and parents to complement what the young people already mentioned to us. And then the last stage was of course also to invite other experts to reflect on what should be included in the policy, so that was of course industry, but also academia and policy makers from the national level. So we can already see that the process of revising the strategy really happened with everyone around the table, including children and young people. And then last May, the new strategy was adopted, and it’s really put at its heart and its front children and young people. It’s based on three pillars, child protection, child empowerment, and child participation. And I think especially pillar two and pillar three are really, really important. We do believe, and there’s really great endorsement and support from the European Commission to make sure that really young people are part of the action, that they’re considered as experts as well, that they have a seat around the table when decisions are being made, but also when new technologies are being developed. So it really encourages stakeholders to make sure when they work on Better Internet for Kids related policies or tools to really invite and include the young people in this process. Of course it’s a policy, it’s a policy document on Better Internet for Kids, so it was also very important to make, to create it in such a way that children and young people are aware of what is written in the strategy, aware of their rights. So this is why we also worked on a youth and child-friendly version of the strategy. I brought one copy here, but you can find it online, which also really happened in a co-creation process with the young people. They advised us on the wording, how this child-friendly version should be formulated. They also advised us on the colors they choose, and they said okay, these icons, these colors, this is really like what attracts us, what we like. What was also interesting, that they advised us to put a sort of like cluster in the end to better explain some terms. I think for us the term policymakers, we all know what that means, but for the young people it was not clear, they didn’t understand what that meant. So that was really refreshing and helpful for us to really understand how we should go about it. This is also translated once again, because that’s also really important. Of course the the common language is English, but we really want to reach young people at national and local level. So we also, with the help of our colleagues at the Safer Internet Center, made sure this is translated in all the EU languages. What happened until then, almost a year after, when it comes to implementation on our side, and again this is with support of the European Commission, we really try to include young people in all our actions. When, for example, we are doing consultations with stakeholders, when we form expert groups, we are inviting young people to be part of these groups. Those young people we are working with are young people that are working at national level together with the Safer Internet Centers. They are typically between the age of 13 to 18, 19 years old, and they have the opportunity through the Safer Internet Centers to also get involved in the work we are doing. Maybe I conclude with a very tangible example. Every year we are hosting our annual conference on behalf of the European Commission, which is the Safer Internet Forum, and what happened last time, that for the first time we involved the young people in the whole development process of the conference. We had a small group that we worked with really on the program. We discussed what should be the key topic of the conference, what should be the slogan of the conference, how should the visual identity look, and what should we do on this day, what kind of sessions do you think would be useful, what do you think works when engaging with stakeholders, who should we invite to speak at the conference. And I think this was a very, very refreshing process, and I think that’s also the point we’re trying to make, to really try to involve the young people from the beginning, from the early stages on, and not give them a finalized document or a finalized tool and a policy and say, okay, this, please use this, we feel it’s useful for you. So we have to educate with children and young people and not to them or for them. So I think I conclude it here. Thank you. Thank you so much, Sabrina. I think we’ll

Josie:
return to a few of the concepts you’ve introduced. Firstly, you know, the three pillars of the strategy, protection, empowerment, participation, I think really speaks to the spirit of this project, but also the importance of prioritizing children’s own views. And we’ll hear from Amanda about the first phase of this, which really embodied that, I think. Our final perspective to complete the triangle for this first part, I’m such a pleasure to introduce the newest member of our UNICEF team. Shuli Gillets is a global expert in child-centered design with over 20 years of experience working both in industry and academia, leading UX research, design, and strategy of digital experiences for children and families. In the past decade, Shuli has served as a Google Launchpad UX mentor, a teaching fellow at Tel Aviv University, and a founding board member of Designing for Children’s Rights Association, and now a member of UNICEF’s Business Engagement and Child Rights team. So welcome, Shuli, and taking us from the policy or government perspective to the industry perspective. And governments, as we know, have an essential role in creating the enabling environment for businesses to respect children’s rights. The actions of industry itself is another essential piece of the puzzle when it comes to prioritizing child well-being in the digital environment. Some of us in the room might be wondering, you know, why are we focusing on design specifically? What does this mean? Can the design of digital experiences really matter for children? And is good design possible? And what’s the power of designing positive technology for children? It would be great to hear your views on that.

Shuli Gilutz:
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. It’s great to see everyone here, and thanks for that, Josie. It’s always great to start talking about children being part of this, but after we hear from children and we hear their need for this, we really have to find a way to make impact in a broad sense. And regulation, legislation, and policy are important tools in children’s positive digital play experiences, and extremely important in guiding and limiting industry in protecting children online. However, in digital play, impact goes beyond mitigating harm. And while that is still the baseline and critical, research has shown, and we’ll hear more about it soon, that digital play can afford positive experiences that promote children’s well-being in different ways. And that is really what we’re trying to do and reach out to companies to help them achieve this. So I’d just like to mention a few terms we’re gonna all refer to so you know what we’re talking about, because they can be used in different ways. So there are many digital experiences for children online. Why do we talk about digital play? I mean, children do a lot of things. So first of all, play is one of the most important ways in which children interact with the world. I mean, and develop an essential knowledge and skills and experiences. That’s also why it’s a child’s right, and everybody here knows that. And children treat digital play the same way they treat physical play. They don’t make those differences. That’s for us, the older generations. And they expect the same safety and joy they have from all the physical play. And of course, that’s not the case, as we know, because it came in later. So we want to help create the environment for them by guiding industry to do so. And Ritech, this project, looks at children’s well-being. So we define children’s well-being by a spotlight on children’s own lived experience. So their subjective experience with digital play. How do they view it? What makes it a good experience or bad experience for them? We found, talking to children, that safety and security is key. But there are also additional outcomes that make up well-being in the eyes of children when it comes to digital play. Like empowerment, social connection, competence, and creativity. In many cases, digital play is a critical lifeline for children’s well-being, enabling all these in a way no other context can. So when we talk about good design in Ritech, we talk about where designers and industry can help support these interactions and then that kind of thriving with children. And most designers today want to create a positive and empowering digital play experience for children, but they don’t know how. I mean, they haven’t trained either in child rights nor in child psychology or in any way. They’re just designers. And they would like to do the right thing. So this is a complementary piece to policy work that is like a top down approach. We were looking at a bottom-up initiative to give designers and industry the tools to create positive digital play experiences and promote the benefits that those have for children. What we’re doing now is working with designers to understand their needs and develop a guide for business that they can implement easily in their design process. To create online experiences that are safe and private and also connective, creative, expand learning, competence, curiosity, and creativity. And of course, fun, exciting, joyful, and inspiring. Thank you.

Josie:
Thanks, Shuli. And that’s a great segue to the second part of the of the session. And next slide, please. Where we will dive in a little bit more to this particular project, Ritech Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children. And I won’t give a long preamble, only to say that this is the question that we’re reflecting on. How can, practically, businesses and policymakers create a digital world that prioritizes the well-being of children and maximizes the opportunities and the potential for positive impact? And with that, I’d like to introduce the next speaker, Adam Ingle. Next to me is the Global Lead for Digital Policy at the LEGO Group, where he helps LEGO maintain high standards of safety, privacy, and security in their digital products, and advocates for policy that empowers children online. Previously, Adam led the Information Commissioner’s Office Emerging Technology Unit, assessing the data protection impact of emerging technologies, and advised both industry and government on how to mitigate privacy risks. Can you tell us, Adam, a little bit about what motivated the LEGO Group to prioritize this topic? And from your perspective, what are the potential pitfalls associated with businesses failing to invest in getting it right when it comes to designing for children’s

Adam Ingle:
well-being? Thanks, Josie. So, at LEGO, kids are at the center of everything we do. You know, they really are the DNA of the company. It’s wonderful to see a child here listening to this talk as well. I mean, really, we associated with our physical bricks. That’s what everyone knows us for. You know, even in the booth that we have out in the Exhibition Hall, everyone comes up to us and say, what is LEGO doing here? What is LEGO doing with the digital space? And yes, I mean, we have this great history of being there in physical play, but we also want to be where kids are. And increasingly, that is online. And, you know, we also need to carry over our commitment to learning, our commitment to safety, our commitment to child well-being from the physical to the online world. And while we’ve been online and, you know, building games and building digital experiences for many, many years now, we want to understand what best practice is. And that isn’t just best practice in safety and protection, that’s best practice in enabling children to grow, to learn, to thrive online. But you can’t just make that out of thin air. You’ve got to do the research, you’ve got to do the hard yards, you’ve got to work with fantastic people like Amanda and Julie and others who have, you know, deep expertise in these areas. So that was really the impetus for starting this Rightech project. It’s to, along with UNICEF, it’s to understand, you know, fundamentally at a research level, what are the building blocks that support child digital well-being? And how can industry really commit to building these products in a way that’s empirical and measured and sustainable? So we want to be the flagship digital service, the flagship kind of industry provider building well-being in our digital products. We want to lift industry best practice, we want to build coalitions in this space. We all know that the, and I feel like this phrase has been said many many times at this conference, but the internet is not designed for kids. Digital experiences aren’t designed for kids. They should be. That should be the future. And I think there’s increasing consensus around this, so we want to drive that alongside UNICEF through this project. And I think it all starts with really embedding these things in our company first. So for example, we’ve already begun the process of, you know, internalizing the initial Ritech findings. So we have a responsible child engagement team. They actually run this project internally for Lego, but they’re also a horizontal team that consults on child rights, child well-being, child issues across all digital design and gaming experiences at the Lego Group. We’ve got responsible digital engagement managers, we’ve got responsible gaming managers. They’re all looking at the Ritech framework and as our product teams build and develop experience for kids, they’re consulting with these managers whose mandate is child well-being and making sure that these aspects are reflected in our digital design experiences. We have a responsible gaming framework, which is a kind of a must check box thing for any games that we make that includes healthy game design. So that talks about, you know, how do you build games that help children emotionally regulate, that don’t have addictive qualities, that don’t have negative enforcement cycles, that don’t have manipulative design patterns. So that’s already integrated into our gaming experiences there. We’re also building kind of digital design cards and digital design principles. So for example, these kind of build on not just the Ritech work, but some of the work that’s come out of the Digital Futures Commission in the UK. So they have kind of key tenets like how do you ensure safety, how do you allow for open-ended play, how do you enhance imagination and creativity. So kind of building on those best practices, as well as the findings from the Ritech framework. And we’re also, you know, wanting to actually measure our company’s performance and the gaming performance that we have on well-being. So we’re building a well-being KPI at Lego to actually push product teams, developers, to meet as a criteria for success, kind of well-being outcomes. Now that’s difficult to do over in the process of doing that, but that’s, you know, a key aspiration of actually performing and measuring against well-being. And I think I can share briefly kind of an outcome from the initial research. So we used one of our games in the Ritech phase 2 research, Lego Builders Journey. And this is kind of a challenging puzzle game with a strong narrative. And initial findings kind of associated, you know, the experience of increased competence, relatedness, and belonging that kids had. Because they were able to enact with Lego minifigures, and they were empowered to explore the game, and were awarded for kind of success. And they kind of had this open and imaginative play experience based in a Lego world. because they had open-ended play, because they had this sense of autonomy and agency that did increase kind of findings of competence. So we’re already kind of seeing the existing games designed and measured against the framework, but I think when this becomes much more formalized and robust, you know, and we build it in, you know, we can really augment and enhance those outcomes. So I think that’s all what we’re doing internally and I think, you know, the success of it so far and the sense of positive feedback we get is itself a reason to do it, but it’s also just the right thing to do. I think the pitfalls of industry not doing this is, you know, really losing, one, the creating potential for extreme harm for kids at this really kind of crucial development age, but two, just like losing a sense of trust and we already see a massive trust deficit in the digital industry at the moment. You know, there’s an online safety crisis happening at the moment. We’ve seen, you know, reports from the U.S. Surgeon General talking about teen mental health crises, issues across the board and that’s, there’s a regulatory response happening to, you know, to ensure that we mitigate some of these harms, but, you know, that’s, it’s not going to solve the challenge if regulation just gets handed down and industry is forced to do it. We need to be proactive and you actually need a cultural change in industry in order to ensure that, you know, the harms are mitigated and not just mitigated, but the well-being is enhanced. So that’s really what we’re trying to do. I’ll leave it at that. Thank you, Adam.

Josie:
Really interested to hear that experience of how do you build this into incentive structures within the company, you know, making it a KPI is a really interesting example and I’m sure we will have time to unpack parts of that in the discussion, but also a nice segue. You mentioned the framework. You might be thinking, but what framework? Well, next slide, please. This is, we will hear a little bit about this piece. It’s a little bit difficult to read on screen, but it’s reproduced in the handout in front of you and this massive banner. I would like to introduce Professor Amanda Third, who is a professorial research fellow in the Institute for Culture and Society, co-director of the Young and Resilient Research Center at Western Sydney University and a faculty associate in the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She’s an international expert in youth-centered participatory research and has led child-centered projects to understand children’s experiences of the digital age in over 70 countries, working with partners across corporate, government, not-for-profit sectors and children and young people themselves. It’s a real pleasure that you’re able to join us. Amanda, can you tell us a little bit about this framework, what we mean by this phase

Amanda Third:
one research and what does this tell us? Yeah, sure. Thank you, Josie, and good morning, everyone. It is really nice to see everyone, especially the younger members of our audience here this morning. Before I leap into talking about the framework, I would just begin with a little reflection that it’s been so nice over the last few IGFs to see our conversations progressively mature and move away from thinking only about protection and to think about protection and participation in tandem. It’s really, really refreshing and I’m really pleased that wellbeing is finally making a big splash on the agenda for children’s digital practices because, of course, the work that I have done and many others have done too shows that actually when children engage with digital media, whether that is scrolling through videos to watch, choosing which games to play or who to interact with online, that question of their wellbeing is really top of their mind constantly. They’re constantly reflecting on whether or not this is good for me at some level and they make their choices accordingly. So, it’s really time for us to take wellbeing very seriously. So, in this project, we were very excited to be able to work with almost 400 children across 13 countries, predominantly in the Global South, and to re-analyse the data from 30,000 survey participants to work out how children’s digital media practices impact their sense of wellbeing and what we can do to really augment their wellbeing through good design. So, basically what we did was we used a creative and participatory-based workshop method to engage with children in languages that they speak in their own contexts to really dig deep into their experiences of digital play. And what we found from that was that children have got very kind of diverse experiences of digital play, but one thing that really stood out across the sample was that digital play brings children a lot of joy and a lot of connection with others and that there’s really a lot for us to work with there in terms of augmenting their experiences online and supporting their wellbeing. So, also though, and as Aditi was gesturing towards in her opening words, children also though really do understand that there are limits to digital play. They’ve got a very strong sense that their safety is at stake. They do have unpleasant experiences and actually what really came through as we spoke to them this time around is that their experiences of diversity really, you know, diverse children have or meet with different kinds of obstacles online, discrimination, barriers to their good participation and culturally inappropriate content, things like this. So, really we do need to pay very good attention to diversity online. They overwhelmingly talked about how wonderful digital play experiences are for connecting with other people online and I think this is the reality for children. They do interact with other people online. They mostly interact with their friends. They occasionally interact with strangers but, you know, that those social dimensions are really things that we need to foster because they bring children a lot of joy and that has positive impacts for their wellbeing. Safety for them is also a priority. So, they are calling on governments and in particular our private enterprise to really safeguard their wellbeing online. They want us to do more to make sure that they are protected and this includes everything from the most serious risks of harm right through to things like the ways that they might encounter advertising in those settings. They also talked about how games are one way for them to express their creativity and sort of talked about creativity as an integral part of their digital play experiences and clearly creativity comes along with a whole range of benefits from, you know, sort of feeling empowered and to take action to express oneself. These are all things we know are positively correlated with wellbeing. So, these are some of the things that came out of the interactions with children and then what we did was we sort of distilled, analysed this in conjunction with the survey data and we distilled it into this wellbeing framework that you see in front of you. So, the eight pillars of this interim framework and I stress that it is an interim framework, it is going to be revisited shortly but these are, if you like, the design principles that we need to take forward and to use to shape the digital play experiences that children have online and you can see they very closely correlate with the kinds of experiences I’ve just very quickly summarised for you. So, from here to the other thing that we’ve done to support this framework is we’ve developed a series of indicators and sample measures that we can then use to measure whether or not digital play experiences are hitting the mark. So, this is a sort of an attempt to, if you like, embed children’s experiences at the heart of our measurement processes to make sure that we are really, really making the impacts we intend. Okay, and so I think, you know, there’s still more work to be done here. This is only phase one that we’ve completed so far. We’re about to do complete phase two but I think what’s really come through very strongly is, as Sabrina was pointing to, well actually all of us have pointed to in different ways, the importance of engaging children in these design processes and I think if you’re here in this room you’ve already got some inkling that this is important somehow and I know I’m preaching to the converted here but what I would urge you is to really stay attuned to the meanings of engaging children and young people. Let’s not get lazy about the ways that we think about participation. Let’s not turn it into a tick box. Let’s make sure that we continue to reflect on our practices, reflect on what value children can bring to these processes and really continue to refine the ways that we do these things over time because I think by doing so, not only do we get better results in terms of the design of products but we also build the next generation of change makers. Thank you.

Josie:
Thank you so much, Amanda. If I may, I have a quick follow-up question which is to ask you a little bit about, you know, we keep saying phase one, phase two, research and of course research takes time and the project is ongoing but can you tell us a little bit about what does this phase two research actually consist of and what can we expect to see? Yes, so thank you, Josie and I’ll make it

Amanda Third:
quick because I know we’re under pressure but phase two is a new phase of research carried out by a range of different institutions around the globe, interestingly. So, the Centre for the Digital Child in Australia, New York University and the University of, oh I’m going to get this wrong, Sheffield, thank you. That was my instinct but, you know, I’m a little jet lagged and what they are doing now is they are taking the framework and testing that against a particular, you know, a set of real world digital play experiences and they’re doing that in a range of different ways using different methods to really understand how children’s experiences play out and how then we might need to refine the framework accordingly. So, we’re doing everything from measuring, you know, sweat and heart rates right through to sort of like the more ethnographic style of research which is talking to children about their experiences as they play and we’ll integrate all of that into a revised version of the framework and roll that out with designers through a range of

Josie:
initiatives. Great, thank you so much. We are coming close to the section where we will have a bit of interaction and invite you to chime in with questions but before we do that, very briefly, Shuli, can you tell us just for those in the room what can they look forward to in terms of the next steps and how they can be involved? Yes, so as Amanda mentioned, we

Shuli Gilutz:
really started this project based on research. We want to base everything we do on real data. There’s a lot of, you know, myths going on around children and technology but after we do that, we want to take that into practice and use that for impact. So, the stage we’re working on now in parallel to summarizing the research is creating a guide for business. So, in order to create the guide for business, it’s not just about finding a way to summarize all the research but it’s really to create something that businesses will use and we’re talking about executive levels but also like we mentioned designers in practice. So, what we’re doing is actually talking to designers from companies that create digital play all over the world. It’s very important for us to reach out and get a diverse group of companies, not only ones that create in English for English speaking kids but a large sample from all over different countries and we’re working with country offices and that comes all over the world to do that and talking to designers about their challenges and needs and designing for children and we’re going to have all that information aggregated and find a way to create some guide for them which will be something applicable for their design process, design tools and assessment for applying Write Tech framework. So, the next stage after we finalize all the information from the companies is actually to create kind of a prototype for the designers and test it, pilot it with different countries that are designing different digital experiences and then hopefully by next fall we’ll have something to show everybody that has been developed together with all these companies from all over the world. If you would like to chat more about that please visit us at our booth and I’m sure we

Josie:
will be able to discuss at more length. We are challenged to think about really actions and concrete things through these sessions. So, to wrap up the panel part, I’d like to just invite each of us one by one in 10 seconds, 20 seconds, just one action that you think should be prioritized by any stakeholder group whether that’s government or industry or young people when it comes to achieving this vision of positive design for child well-being and then we’ll throw it open but this will really help us I think try and distill everything that we’ve spoken about. May I invite Sabrina to start?

Sabrina Vorbau:
Yeah, sure. I would say meaningful youth participation. I would hope and Amanda said that there is you know more that progress has been made but more needs to be done. So, I would wish for a multi-stakeholder approach where we would consider children and young people to be an equal part of it. So, to consider them really as expert and not as a necessary and coming back just to the big plus strategy, I think it’s a very great piece of policy. It sets the framework, it’s there so I would encourage all the other stakeholders especially industry and policymakers to really implement it to put it in action. It’s there, it’s meant to be used so I think that’s the the only way forward.

Josie:
Fantastic, thank you. Adam?

Adam Ingle:
I’m sure Amanda surely might cover off the industry expectation so I’ll be a bit policy wonky and say that I really would welcome I think and Lego would really welcome governments and policymakers to actually recognize the need for a holistic approach to digital design. So, right now there is a lot of discussion and rightly so around addressing online harms but an over focus on harms can lead to sterile environments and we actually need to build experiences and have the regulatory frameworks that incentivize experiences that allow us to tick off on all these eight competencies. That is safety and protection is one but kind of creativity, imagination and you need some level of flexibility in design in order to do that. So, government’s thinking about how you holistically increase child well-being in digital design and creating frameworks that enable companies to design like that.

Shuli Gilutz:
Thanks, I’ll talk about companies and industry. I think there needs to be a shift from looking at designing for children just something that’s regulated and they need to do by law and they’re different ages and you know complying with different frameworks like GDPR or COPPA or others. The shift should be to understanding that this is the future. There is no going back. We have to design a fully holistic environment for children to thrive in not just to be safe in and whoever isn’t doing this will be just left behind. So, I think industry really has to change pivot the way it’s looking at designing for children and I hope that will happen.

Amanda Third:
Okay, it’s always tough going last on this little tweet link thing. So, I think I would challenge us to continue to really problematize some of the distinctions that we make. Often what we do is we pitch protection against participation. We talk about them as two separate things and I think there’s a lot of value in thinking about how participation breeds protective capabilities. So, that would be the first. The second would be to really look closely at young people’s practices or children’s practices. Sometimes we dismiss their practices out of hand and we say they’re mindlessly scrolling or they’re just mucking around, but actually those things we need to look closely at. There’s a lot going on in those little spaces that support and sustain their well-being and there’s again a lot of fertile ground there for us to talk about. The last thing I would say is, this is really not tweet link, sorry Josie, but the last thing I would say is that design is really, really, really important. But we’re also investing a lot of hope that design is going to solve a lot of problems. So, for us to think about what are the limits of design and where do other pieces of the puzzle need to fit in.

Josie:
Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you to our panelists. Now is the time to please raise your hands. We will have roving microphones and we’ll take a few questions at one together and then we’ll portion them out to two panelists. So

Audience:
let’s start and go around. Please. Hi everybody. I’m Niels from the Belgian Safer Internet Center. We work under the InSafe umbrella where Sabrina is a part of. Something that stays a constant struggle for us in order to avoid using child participation as a sort of tokenism as I said before or simply a box to tick. How can we reach like a true representational group of young people? Like without a constant focus on this we enforce this Matthew effect where representation can even be a misleading thing. Because when only privileged people are being reached we get the wrong idea about a certain situation. So is there any interesting research or findings that are best practices about this? Because for example at the Belgian Safer Internet Center we’ve been experimenting over the past years. For example when we were doing trainings with parents we would allow them to bring their children for example. A small thing but which allows more people to be part of something. But I’m looking for more ideas here because this stays a constant struggle. Thank you. Yeah thank you. My name is Jutta Kroll from the German Digital Opportunities Foundation. First of all I want to thank you not only for the presentations but for the wonderful approach and project. I really really believe in it. My questions regard the principle of evolving capacities of children. You’re talking about designing for children’s well-being but they are not all the same and therefore I’m really interested how that can be done. In parallel to the big plus strategy the European Commission has set up a special group on age-appropriate design which is working in this regard. I would like to know whether this could be brought together. Thank you. Great question. Thank you. I think we had a few on this side of the room. Oh we have another mic yes. Yeah thank you very much. Yeah my question well one of my questions has been stolen but absolutely I think I think just to add to Jutta’s point sorry my name is Amy from ECHPAD International. To add to Jutta’s point I guess this how do we navigate the difference between platforms designed for children platforms used by children and how can we build in a kind of an experience that is flexible enough so that older use sort of an experience that doesn’t work for them but also children are supported. And I guess the second thing is about parents. We hear often that you know some research shows just the ongoing importance of parents being involved in the gaming life and the online digital life and accompanying children in that and what does the framework address that in some way to kind of also bring parents on that journey. Thank you. My name is Carmen so I speak on capacity as a mom today. I come from nuclear physics and internet systems to different worlds but I’m also mom. You just told my question because it is very important to involve parents because when I gave birth to my children they didn’t come out with the phone. So we provide them a phone and actually I have two daughters and they don’t have a phone. They only use their computer when they are at school. They don’t live online. They live outside. So we’re talking about something we give for granted that the children they will live online their life. They’re not gonna live there online and as you said there is no turning back but there is a turning back because we can walk in parallel ways. The online life and the offline life. So if we only if they only live online now we take away all the senses so we won’t feel pain anymore when we walk on top of a brick. Lego brick. So and it’s very nice. I see them playing and every year they get from Santa a lot of Lego and this makes the children build up this new world together. And then I was pretty worried to hear that the developers they have no pedagogical experience. So we expect this from from the teachers. So I would expect this also from the developers to have this kind of knowledge. Otherwise you just give something to the children and they have to figure it out. And some parents you should educate the parents because we see a lot of parents we give they give a telephone to children and they think it’s the babysitter of the children and they don’t explain all the threats that they’re online. So they give data and all these kind of things. So there are there are certain. It’s pretty interesting what you said and I love your speech when you said you involve the children which is extremely important. But first you should educate parents as well because this is not a substitute to a parent. So it’s like giving a nice Tesla to the children and just say just go out and drive. It doesn’t work like that. Thank you so much. Thank you to you. We have five minutes left but I notice we have one question from behind us and then. OK. There’s David from the Association. We are also working for working with NGOs insurance group in Asia Pacific region. So my question is basically about our next step and also the engagement of other stakeholders. First about the next step. Knowing that right now is creating the guideline or the guide for business and policymakers. And it’s also at the other audience was mentioned. Parents engagement is very important in a sense and also the workers. So I’m just wondering for the next step. Would that be any guideline also for parents and as well as the workers who work closely with children as well as educators. So there’s the first question. And the second question is about right now is on phase two for the research. I’m just wondering for for NGOs and also for Institute from the other regions. How can we involve in like stage two stage three or afterwards. So there’s many about next step and for our actions. Thank you so much. We’re going to have to be very economical with our answering. But I think that I’ll be very quick just to respect that we have an online participation as well. And we’ve got a young person who’s obviously very passionate and is doing sounds like doing amazing things in Bangladesh. So he’s been quite active in the chat and he’s wondering how he can become involved in global initiatives and like this to represent kind of children at a global scale and also really agreeing with the points that have been made that you know a child understands children’s priorities most. So really reinforcing this importance of having developers you know have this insight and really respect children. So that that one’s from the online chat. Brilliant and it’s

Josie:
wonderful to see that engagement coming off live. We have three minutes left and I know the next session is in the room preparing to get ready. I’m gonna have to cluster this into representation and diversity and in the access we have to children in in in the research side evolving capacities and parents. Takers. Okay we’re just doing a round where we’ll each have maybe 30 seconds to to answer whichever question spoke to you most. Please Amanda and then we’ll go

Adam Ingle:
this way. I’ll be super quick and I’ll before I forget I’ll mention that for all the everyone that attended this early session I’ve got Lego loot if you want it at the end so please come see me and I can give you some stuff. So on the evolving capacities matter and kind of age-appropriate design and designing for brackets you know there there is methods to do this and and you know as as it’s already required by age appropriate design codes I mean Lego is a part of the EU AADC method as well. So we need to think you know what’s an appropriate level of social interaction for a 10 to 13 year old 13 to 16 year old you know. You actually probably need for teens well-being some level of social connection you know form organic friendships online. However that comes with risks you know you are have a contact risk with strangers so maybe you disable certain features for 13 to 10 year olds. Equally the level of communication and language that you use can be tailored so privacy policies default settings certain aspects of game design can be kind of tailored in a certain way. So there is through the wonders of kind of technology ways to really tailor these these different things. So I’ve got more to say but I’ll stop that. Thank you. Thanks. Okay I’ll quickly talk about the points that

Shuli Gilutz:
raised about parents. I think it’s critical and it always comes up because it’s a big challenge for parenting today. So parenting is hard and we all appreciate that. It’s hard to teach your children something that you didn’t have when you were growing up and I think the two main recommendations that come out with a lot of research and working with parents and families are number one play with your kids. So when parents don’t know what’s going on here or in the Xbox they tend to put in all these myths and stuff and they can’t really help and support their children and making good decisions and that’s what we’re really doing in parenting. So once you play with the children this goes back to child’s participation and learn what they’re actually engaging and then you can have a meaningful discussion you can see the well-being you can see the good things but you can also see when it’s not that great and then you can really talk about it so that’s very very important even if you think you don’t want to play this game go sit down play learn and have a discussion you may even enjoy it and the second one is talk to children about what you’re worried about about the playing outside why why do you want them to play outside that will be a very interesting discussion and children appreciated because children just wanna do you have well-being they want to do what’s fun and good for them they want to be healthy they want to enjoy and that’s why they still play with Legos and they still play outside because it’s fun it’s great it’s good for them so have those discussions with children rather than try to tell them what not to do without really knowing what’s going on in their lives thanks very quickly on

Amanda Third:
the representation question spot on I would say something controversial and say I don’t think representations a useful idea when you’re doing child participation I think what we need to pay attention to is reaching out through partner organizations who have deep expertise engaging vulnerable and diverse children to reach the children that that will give us a diversity of opinion and then I think we have to really make sure that we are tailoring our methods to make sure that we can can speak meaningfully with with different kinds of children right and that means often letting go of this idea that there is a perfect research method and a perfect way of engaging with children and going with the flow being guided by your sense of the rights of the child and and and yeah you know moving forward consciously I guess yeah thank

Sabrina Vorbau:
you and the final word no I just wanted to thank everyone for for the reflections and I think everyone that posted a question and made a comments I think that’s our job to try to connect these dots I think children and adults they need to have a conversation we need to approach this as a conversation and not educating to them and for them but with them thank you so much for all your

Josie:
participation and let’s continue the conversation outside and yeah thanks

Audience:
yeah yeah I’ve got to make sure I’ve got it right right I think it’s at 15 yeah to 15 to 315 yeah focus as you said yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah