Abstract

In this talk Prof Phippen will explore current and emerging policy positions on online safeguarding and argue that while the tech sector is placed under extreme pressure, and legislative threat, to make sure children can using online systems safely, this approach results in increasingly prohibitive technology that negatively impacts on children’s rights while not addressing the concerns that governments claim they wish to tackle (for example, preventing access to pornography, stopping young people from sending indecent images, and making sure they can’t “cyberbully”).

Using recent case studies, such as the tracking of children and the BBFC age verification of pornography services in the UK, Prof Phippen, a computer scientist by training, will take these policy positions to task using extensive empirical work with young people, to highlight how these technical approaches are doomed to fail, and distract from the need for more responsible policy making with a wider stakeholder group.