Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]

skip to main content
horizon

Playful by Design: Embedding Children's Rights into the Digital World

Published: 08 August 2024 Publication History

Abstract

To explore ‘what good looks like’ for children’s play in a digital world,the Digital Futures Commission consulted children, companies, policy makers, regulators and academics. Responding to public scepticism that play online could match the benefits of traditional free play, our research compared insights from play in non-digital and digital contexts and integrated them within a holistic account of how play possibilities emerge from the intersection of people, products and places, conceived at micro, meso and macro levels. This very complexity helps to transcend reductive judgments about digital play and suggests multiple levers for design innovation, synthesised as ‘Playful by Design’ principles. We operationalised these by co-designing an interactive tool for developers and designers of children’s digital play. Finally, by mapping the principles to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, we position play as a use case for the broader agenda of Child Rights by Design.

References

[1]
Lorna Arnott. 2016. An ecological exploration of young children’s digital play: Framing children’s social experiences with technologies in early childhood. Early Years 36, 3 (2016), 271–288.
[2]
D4CR Association. 2022. Designing for Children’s Rights Guide Version 2.0, July 2022. The D4CR Association. https://childrensdesignguide.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/D4CR-Design-Principles-2.0-2022-07-12.pdf
[3]
Jon Back, Caspar Heeffer, Susan Paget, Andreas Rau, Eva Lotta Sallnäs Pysander, and Annika Waern. 2016. Designing for children’s outdoor play. In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems. 28–38.
[4]
Alicia Blum-Ross, Kristiina Kumpulainen, and J. Marsh. 2019. Enhancing Digital Literacy and Creativity: Makerspaces in the Early Years. Routledge, London, UK.
[5]
Urie Bronfenbrenner. 1979. The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Harvard University Press.
[6]
Richard Buchanan. 2001. Design research and the new learning. Design Issues 17, 4 (2001), 3–23.
[7]
Andrew Burn and Rebekah Willett. 2005. “What exactly is a paedophile?” Children talking about internet risk. MedienPädagogik: Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung 5 (2005), 237–254. https://www.medienpaed.com/article/view/589
[8]
Eunice Castro Seixas. 2021. Urban (digital) play and right to the city: A critical perspective. Frontiers in Psychology 12 (2021), 636111.
[9]
Angela Colvert. 2021. The Kaleidoscope of Play in a Digital World: A Literature Review. Digital Futures Commission. https://digitalfuturescommission.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/The-kaleidoscope-of-play-in-a-digital-world.pdf
[10]
Digital Futures Commission. 2022. Playful by Design Toolkit. Retrieved September 2, 2022 from https://digitalfuturescommission.org.uk/playful-by-design-toolkit/
[11]
Kate Cowan. 2020. A Panorama of Play: A Literature Review. Digital Futures Commission. https://digitalfuturescommission.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/A-Panorama-of-Play-A-Literature-Review.pdf
[12]
Linda De Valk, Tilde Bekker, and Berry Eggen. 2013. Leaving room for improvisation: Towards a design approach for open-ended play. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children. 92–101.
[13]
Yao Du, Thomas D. Grace, Krithika Jagannath, and Katie Salen-Tekinbas. 2021. Connected play in virtual worlds: Communication and control mechanisms in virtual worlds for children and adolescents. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction 5, 5 (2021), 27. https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/5/5/27
[14]
Batya Friedman and David G. Hendry. 2019. Value Sensitive Design: Shaping Technology with Moral Imagination. MIT Press.
[15]
Elisabeth Gee, Sinem Siyahhan, and Anna Montana Cirell. 2017. Video gaming as digital media, play, and family routine: Implications for understanding video gaming and learning in family contexts. Learning, Media and Technology 42, 4 (2017), 468–482.
[16]
Pedro Hartung. 2020. The Children’s Rights-by-Design Standard for Data Use by Tech Companies. Issue Brief 5. UNICEF—The Good Governance of Children’s Data Project.
[17]
Michael D. Jones, Zann Anderson, Jonna Häkkilä, Keith Cheverst, and Florian Daiber. 2018. HCI outdoors: Understanding human-computer interaction in outdoor recreation. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1–8.
[18]
Yasmin B. Kafai, Gabriela T. Richard, and Brendesha M. Tynes. 2016. Diversifying Barbie and Mortal Kombat: Intersectional Perspectives and Inclusive Designs in Gaming. ETC Press. https://press.etc.cmu.edu/books/diversifying-barbie-and-mortal-kombat
[19]
Baroness Kidron, Alexandra Evans, Jenny Afia, J. Adler, Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Liam Hackett, Anisha Juj, A. Przybylski, Anghrarad Rudkin, and Young Scot. 2018. Disrupted Childhood: The Cost of Persuasive Design. 5Rights Foundation, London, UK. https://5rightsfoundation.com/uploads/Disrupted-Childhood-2023-v2.pdf
[20]
Beeban Kidron and Angharad Rudkin. 2017. Digital Childhood: Addressing Childhood Development Milestones in the Digital Environment. 5Rights Foundation, London, UK. https://5rightsfoundation.com/static/Digital_Childhood_report_-_EMBARGOED.pdf
[21]
David Kleeman. 2021. As Kids Kickstart the Metaverse, Is Public Service Media Ready? The Children’s Media Foundation. https://www.thechildrensmediafoundation.org/public-service-mediareport/articles/as-kids-kickstart-the-metaverse-is-public-service-media-ready
[22]
Natalia Kucirkova. 2019. Children’s agency by design: Design parameters for personalization in story-making apps. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 21 (2019), 112–120.
[23]
Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross. 2020. Parenting for a Digital Future: How Hopes and Fears about Technology Shape Children’s Lives. Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
[24]
Sonia Livingstone, Julia Davidson, Joanne Bryce, Saqba Batool, Ciaran Haughton, and Anulekha Nandi. 2017. Children’s Online Activities, Risks and Safety: A Literature Review by the UKCCIS Evidence Group. LSE Consulting. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-online-activities-risks-and-safety-a-literature-review-by-the-ukccis-evidence-group
[25]
Sonia Livingstone, Giovanna Mascheroni, and Elisabeth Staksrud. 2015. Developing a Framework for Researching Children’s Online Risks and Opportunities in Europe. EU Kids Online, The London School of Economics and Political Science. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/64470/1/__lse.ac.uk_storage_LIBRARY_Secondary_libfile_shared_repository_Content_EU%20Kids%20Online_EU%20Kids%20Online_Developing%20framework%20for%20researching_2015.pdf
[26]
Sonia Livingstone, Kjartan Ólafsson, and Kruakae Pothong. 2023. Digital play on children’s terms: A child rights approach to designing digital experiences. New Media & Society. Published Online, September 9, 2023.
[27]
Sonia Livingstone and Kruakae Pothong. 2021. Playful by Design: A Vision of Free Play in a Digital World. Digital Futures Commission, London: 5Rights Foundation, London, UK. https://digitalfuturescommission.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/A-Vision-of-Free-Play-in-a-Digital-World.pdf
[28]
Sonia Livingstone and Kruakae Pothong. 2023. Child Rights by Design: Guidance for Innovators of Digital Products and Services Used by Children. Digital Futures Commission, London: 5Rights Foundation, London, UK. https://digitalfuturescommission.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/CRbD_singles-web.pdf
[29]
Jackie Marsh. 2019. Researching young children’s play in the post-digital age: Questions of method. In The Routledge International Handbook of Learning with Technology in Early Childhood, Natalia Kucirkova, Jennifer Rowsell, and Garry Falloon (Eds.). Routledge, 157–69.
[30]
Jackie Marsh, K. Murris, D. Ng’ambi, R. Parry, F. Scott, B. S. Thomsen, J. Bishop, C. Bannister, K. Dixon, T. Giorza, J. Peers, S. Titus, H. Da Silva, G. Doyle, A. Driscoll, L. Hall, A. Hetherington, M. Kronke, T. Margary, A. Morris, B. Nutbrown, S. Rashid, J. Santos, E. Scholey, L. Souza, and A. Woodgate. 2020. Children, Technology and Play. The LEGO Foundation, Billund, Denmark. https://docslib.org/doc/729375/children-technology-and-play
[31]
Jackie Marsh, Lydia Plowman, Dylan Yamada-Rice, Julia Bishop, Jamel Lahmar, Fiona Scott, Andrew Davenport, Simon Davis, Katie French, Maddalena Piras, Sally Thornhill, Peter Robinson, and Peter Winter. 2015. Exploring Play and Creativity in Pre-Schooler’s Use of Apps: Final Project Report. Technology and Play. http://techandplay.org/tap-media-pack.pdf
[32]
Carolina Martínez. 2019. The struggles of everyday life: How children view and engage with advertising in mobile games. Convergence 25, 5-6 (2019), 848–867.
[33]
Giovanna Mascheroni and Donell Holloway (Eds.). 2019. The Internet of Toys: Practices, Affordances and the Political Economy of Children’s Smart Play. Springer.
[34]
Emily McReynolds, Sarah Hubbard, Timothy Lau, Aditya Saraf, Maya Cakmak, and Franziska Roesner. 2017. Toys that listen: A study of parents, children, and internet-connected toys. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 5197–5207.
[35]
Ingrida Milkaite and Eva Lievens. 2020. Child-friendly transparency of data processing in the EU: From legal requirements to platform policies. Journal of Children and Media 14, 1 (2020), 5–21.
[36]
Sudeshna Mukherjee, Kruakae Pothong, and Sonia Livingstone. 2021. Child Rights by Design: Guidance for Innovators of Digital Products and Services Used by Children. Digital Futures Commission, London: 5Rights Foundation, London, UK. https://digitalfuturescommission.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Child-Rights-Impact-Assessment.pdf
[37]
United Nations. 1989. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. United Nations. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child
[38]
United Nations. 2003. General Comment No. 5: General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Arts. 4, 42 and 44, Para. 6) (CRC/C/GC/5). United Nations. https://www.refworld.org/legal/general/crc/2003/en/36435
[39]
United Nations. 2013. General Comment No. 17 on the Right of the Child to Rest, Leisure, Play, Recreational Activities, Cultural Life and the Arts (CRC/C/GC/17). United Nations. https://https://www.refworld.org/legal/general/crc/2013/en/96090
[40]
United Nations. 2021. General Comment No. 25 on Children’s Rights in Relation to the Digital Environment (CRC/C/GC/25). United Nations. https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/general-comment-no-25-2021-childrens-rights-relation
[42]
Marcello Passarelli, Jeffrey Earp, Francesca Maria Dagnino, Flavio Manganello, Donatella Persico, Francesca Pozzi, Thomas Buijtenweg, Mata Haggis, Chris Bailey, and Carlo Perrotta. 2020. The distant horizon: Investigating the relationship between social sciences academic research and game development. Entertainment Computing 34 (2020), 100339.
[43]
Kruakae Pothong, Sonia Livingstone, Angela Colvert, and Larissa Pschetz. 2024. Applying children’s rights to digital products: Exploring competing priorities in design. In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference. 93–104.
[44]
Jenny Radesky, Yolanda (Linda) Reid Chassiakos, Nusheen Ameenuddin, and Dipesh Navsaria. 2020. Digital advertising to children. Pediatrics 146, 1 (2020), e20201681.
[45]
Glenda Revelle. 2013. Applying developmental theory and research to the creation of educational games. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development 139 (2013), 31–40.
[46]
Kathryn E. Ringland, Christine T. Wolf, Heather Faucett, Lynn Dombrowski, and Gillian R. Hayes. 2016. “Will I always be not social?” Re-conceptualizing sociality in the context of a Minecraft community for autism. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1256–1269.
[47]
Katie Salen Tekinbaş. 2020. Raising Good Gamers: Envisioning an Agenda for Diversity, Inclusion, and Fair Play. Connected Learning Alliance. Irvine, CA.
[48]
Kiley Sobel, Katie O’Leary, and Julie A. Kientz. 2015. Maximizing children’s opportunities with inclusive play: Considerations for interactive technology design. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children. 39–48.
[49]
Christine Stephen and Lydia Plowman. 2014. Digital Play. Sage.
[51]
José Van Dijck. 2014. Datafication, dataism and dataveillance: Big data between scientific paradigm and ideology. Surveillance & Society 12, 2 (2014), 197–208.
[52]
Karen E. Wohlwend. 2020. P(l)aying online: Toys, apps and young consumers on transmedia playgrounds. In The Routledge Handbook of Digital Literacies in Early Childhood, Ola Erstad, Rosie Flewitt, Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer, and Íris S. Pereira (Eds.). Routledge, 391–401.
[53]
Dylan Yamada-Rice, Faisal Mushtaq, Adam Woodgate, D. Bosmans, A. Douthwaite, I. Douthwaite, W. Harris, R. Holt, D. Kleeman, J. Marsh, E. Milovidov, M. Mon Williams, B. Parry, A. Riddler, P. Robinson, D. Rodrigues, S. Thompson, and S. Whitley. 2017. Children and Virtual Reality: Emerging Possibilities and Challenges. Royal College of Art. http://digilitey.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/CVR-Final-PDF-reduced-size.pdf

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Ethical Games: Toward Evidence-Based Guidance for Safeguarding Players and DevelopersGames: Research and Practice10.1145/36852072:2(1-11)Online publication date: 19-Aug-2024

Index Terms

  1. Playful by Design: Embedding Children's Rights into the Digital World

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

    Information & Contributors

    Information

    Published In

    cover image Games: Research and Practice
    Games: Research and Practice  Volume 2, Issue 2
    June 2024
    149 pages
    EISSN:2832-5516
    DOI:10.1145/3613575
    Issue’s Table of Contents

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 08 August 2024
    Online AM: 17 July 2024
    Accepted: 17 May 2024
    Revised: 03 May 2024
    Received: 30 March 2024
    Published in GAMES Volume 2, Issue 2

    Check for updates

    Author Tags

    1. Child rights
    2. children
    3. technology design
    4. digital play
    5. design tool

    Qualifiers

    • Horizon

    Funding Sources

    • 5Rights Foundation

    Contributors

    Other Metrics

    Bibliometrics & Citations

    Bibliometrics

    Article Metrics

    • Downloads (Last 12 months)363
    • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)28
    Reflects downloads up to 03 Feb 2025

    Other Metrics

    Citations

    Cited By

    View all
    • (2024)Ethical Games: Toward Evidence-Based Guidance for Safeguarding Players and DevelopersGames: Research and Practice10.1145/36852072:2(1-11)Online publication date: 19-Aug-2024

    View Options

    Login options

    Full Access

    View options

    PDF

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader

    Full Text

    View this article in Full Text.

    Full Text

    Figures

    Tables

    Media

    Share

    Share

    Share this Publication link

    Share on social media