A co-regulatory approach to stay safe online: reporting inappropriate content with the MediaKids mobile app

ABSTRACT

The convergence of mobile technologies, media, and the Internet is transforming the way that digital content is produced, distributed, and consumed among children and young adults. In Europe as in many other areas, minors are exposed to an ever-growing amount of digital content on multiple screens. Increasing exposure at an early age brings both new opportunities and risks. This paper reviews the current discussion about strategies that deal with inappropriate, harmful, and illegal content online and proposes a co-regulatory, technology-driven approach that involves children, their families, and the education system. The MediaKids project aims to test this co-regulatory approach by developing a mobile application – the MediaKids app – within the broader context of an educational programme to raise awareness about online safety. The project seeks to involve children and young adults in defining the notion of ‘harmful content’ and, ultimately, in the elaboration of the policies for the emergent digital public space.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• young adults
• mobile technologies
• digital content
• online safety
• regulation

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the grant ‘MediaKids: An Online Application to Protect Kids from Harmful Digital Content’ (Obra Social La Caixa, RecerCaixa2012), and partially by the grant ‘Crowdsourcing: Semantic Tools to Develop Participation and Mediation Online’ (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, DER2012-39492-C02-01). Special thanks go to pedagogical coordinators Albert Davi (IES Balmes, Barcelona), Ramon Bosch (IES Damià Campeny, Mataró), Hug Llàcer and Marc Fontanet (Escola Ramon Fuster, Bellaterra) for their ongoing support and collaboration.

ORCID

Marta Poblet http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0026-989X

Pompeu Casanovas http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0980-2371

Notes

1 http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/EUKidsOnline/Home.aspx

2 http://www.NetChildrenGoMobile.eu

3 http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx

4 http://www.saferinternet.org

5 http://www.keepcontrol.eu

6 http://www.cybersmart.gov.au

7 http://www.ftc.gov/safe-harbor-program

8 http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-agenda/files/sn_principles.pdf

9 http://www.pegi.info/en/index/

10 http://www.esrb.org

11 (COM (2011) 556 final), http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52011DC0556&from=EN

12 http://www.protegeles.com/index.asp

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Obra Social La Caixa [grant number RecerCaixa2012]; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) [grant number DER2012-39492-C02-01].