[Commlist] Call for contributions: Themed issue of Global Studies of Childhood (Sage), on the theme of Children as rights holders in the digital world

*Call for contributions: Themed issue of /Global Studies of Childhood/ 
(Sage), on the theme of Children as rights holders in the digital world*

We invite abstracts of 500 words (250 words for non-academic work) by 30 
September 2025.

This themed issue addresses a significant yet underexplored aspect of 
children’s digital cultures and online experiences: that across 
scholarship, policy and public discourse, children’s rights perspectives 
are not sufficiently considered. Considering children as diverse and 
rights-holding users of digital and social media will be of increased 
importance in light of the evolving role of digital and social media, as 
well as AI technologies in society and children’s lives. Many digital 
inequalities affect children, and with digital research dominated by 
majority and mainstream representations, a children’s rights perspective 
may be leveraged to address inequalities and redress the 
under-representation of those child populations. It may also present a 
vital and novel avenue for strength-based approaches to children’s 
digital practices.

We invite theoretical and empirical contributions from across 
disciplines, and from different contexts and geographical settings, 
addressing children as rights holders in relation to—but not limited to 
children’s rights to:

·development and expression of identity

·maintaining personal relationships and contact with parents

·freely expressing their views on matters that concern them, and 
seeking, receiving, and sharing information and ideas of all kinds 
through any media

·association and assembly

·culture, leisure and play

·access to information and materials from diverse sources, particularly 
those promoting social well-being, physical and mental health

These aspects are especially relevant in *how they intersect with and 
shape children's experiences in digital culture and social media.*

Further, potential contributions could respond to what consequences 
policy-based restrictions or algorithmic steering of content have on 
diverse children and their rights. We also invite critical and 
human-centred (child-centric) approaches to children’s lived experiences 
(including but not limited to having their activities tracked, harvested 
for data, and monetised) in relation to the child as a rights holder. 
Contributions may also explore how children’s participation in 
decision-making, knowledge production (incl. research) and policy 
development can produce different outcomes than a focus on controls and 
monitoring.

If you are interested in contributing to these debates, please see 
further details below. For any questions, feel free to contact the guest 
editors at: (gscspecialissue /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(gscspecialissue /at/ gmail.com)>

We look forward to hearing from you.

*Guest editors*

Prof Helena Sandberg, University of Lund, Sweden

Prof Olu Jenzen, University of Southampton, UK

Dr Tessa Lewin, IDS, University of Sussex, UK

  Full details:

We welcome contributions from both academic and non-academic authors. 
Academic papers up to 6,000 words (excluding references) and other work 
up to 3,000 words are considered.

POTENTIAL RESEARCH QUESTIONS

·What consequences do policy-based restrictions or algorithmic steering 
of content have on diverse children’s digital lives and their rights?

·How can children’s rights support children’s digital civic engagement?

·How do children understand, experience and voice their opinions on 
surveillance and tracking technologies and/or the harvesting and 
monetisation of their data?

·How will AI impact child rights and how can child rights be considered 
in AI development?

·How do children engage in issues around their future with AI and how 
will children’s voices be incorporated?

·How are children’s interests and desires informing technology development?

·How do children mobilise and use digital media for social change or 
become activists to promote issues they care about?

·How can invisibilized children be considered and included in 
decision-making and knowledge production?

·What does children’s creative use of digital media look like?

·How do children build digital cultures and communities?

KEYWORDS AND TOPICS

We welcome submissions adjacent to (but not limited to) the following 
thematic areas:

·Digital childhoods

·Social media

·Media regulation and policy

·Digital media industry

·Datafication, tracking and privacy issues

·Social media, child labour and the commodification of childhood

·Children’s digital culture and community building

·Rights, participation, citizenship, and activism

·Access to information

·Gender and sexuality

·Ableism and health inequalities

·Help seeking

·Catastrophes and preparedness

·Migrant children’s use of digital media

·Ethnic minority children

·Social class

·Urban and rural childhoods

·Digital exclusion and poverty

·Creativity, art, music and play

·School, leisure and family life

·Children as researchers and research with children

·Methodologies and ethics in researching digital childhoods

BACKGROUND

Recent developments aimed at restricting children’s access to digital 
and social media across the globe, including Australia, Europe, China, 
and some parts of the US for example, open up questions about the social 
constructions of childhood. Such policy changes have a direct and, in 
some cases, profound impact on children’s life experiences and abilities 
to exercise their rights in the digital environment, including engaging 
in public life and seeking information, and their rights to culture, 
leisure and play, to mention a few. In response to these developments 
and calls for more child-centric research, we propose a /Global Studies 
of Childhood /themed issue on ‘Children as rights holders in the digital 
world’.

Digital and social media use is almost ubiquitous among teenagers. 
Nearly all US teens (96%) report using the Internet daily (Faverio and 
Sidoti 2024), and globally approximately 30% of Internet users are 
children, with an even higher proportion of child users estimated in the 
Global South (Ghai et al. 2022). Young people continue to make up the 
highest proportion of social media users.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, children make up the majority of mobile users, 
although digital media use and access to devices among children and 
youth vary significantly across diverse settings. We also see increasing 
use of smartphones and tablets in early childhood globally, and although 
the use of social media is still limited among toddlers and preschoolers 
(0-4 years old) 16% of Swedish children aged 5-8 see their friends 
online regularly (Andersson 2023:9). In their annual study of children’s 
relationship with the media and online worlds, Ofcom (2024) recently 
reported that use of social media and apps among 5-7-year-olds in the UK 
has increased year-on-year. For many children, measures such as 
lockdowns and school closures, introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, 
meant that even more of their daily lives moved online.

**

*Recent Developments and Children's Digital Worlds*

Recent public debate across several international settings focuses 
predominantly on the risks and perceived harms associated with 
children’s digital screen and social media use. Governments and 
policymakers have advocated for implementing new age restrictions and 
other restrictive measures, such as restricting children’s use of 
smartphones. Most social media platforms require users to be 13 or older 
to have a user account. However, age limits are regulated differently 
across different countries, and recently, we have seen some rollback of 
younger teenagers’ access to social media, such as Australia’s social 
media ban for under 16-year-olds; France’s lobbying for an EU-wide 
policy, modelled on French law, requiring parental authorisation for 
children under 15 to use a social network service; mirrored by a similar 
call for a 15+ age limit by Denmark’s Prime Minister; Instagram’s 
introduction of a ‘teen’ (parental control) version in the UK; and 
several other countries implementing restrictions aimed at limiting 
social media use for teenagers under 16 (Livingstone and Sylwander 
2025). The Australian social media ban is seen as a test case keenly 
observed across the globe by those actors seeking to advocate for 
regulatory interventions.

Accountability in a highly commercialised online environment is 
paramount, and making social media platforms, apps, and other online 
services more responsible for user safety is important. Policies aimed 
at strengthening children’s rights in online environments concerning 
datafication, privacy, and consent are positive developments. However, 
debates on the ‘banning of’ or introducing new restrictions to 
children’s access to digital and social media /are dominated by deficit 
approaches and relatively narrow protectionist perspectives, /with the 
view to protect children from various harms and risks, either as 
mediated through social media platforms (e.g., bullying, exploitation, 
ideological influencing) or as associated with the use of devices (e.g., 
screen time) or the techno-social dimension of platforms (e.g., 
‘addiction’, social pressures). Increasingly, evidence is emerging on 
how simplistic approaches to limiting children’s time spent on 
screen-based media have proven ineffective. However, more importantly, 
little attention has been given to the impact on groups of marginalised 
children and young people for whom the digital connections offered by 
social media and other internet-based platforms are vital. The impact of 
restrictive approaches, for example, on refugee and migrant young 
people, LGBTQ+ children, and children with disabilities, as well as 
other invisibilised groups (Jordan and Prendella 2019), is not greatly 
understood and notably absent from both policy and public discourse. 
Furthermore, little attention has been given to the role of digital and 
social media in children’s political discourse and civic participation, 
which may be impinged upon following rollback measures.

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

Please email an abstract of 500 words (250 words for non-academic work) 
and a short bio of each author to guest editors by September 30^th at 
(gscspecialissue /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(gscspecialissue /at/ gmail.com)>

Please feel free to direct any queries to the editorial team: 
(gscspecialissue /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(gscspecialissue /at/ gmail.com)>

TIMELINE

Abstracts Due: *30 September 2025*

Invitations to submit full papers will be sent by: *30 November 2025*

First Draft Due: *15 March 2026*

Themed Issue editors review and provide feedback to authors: *15 June 2026 *

Authors submit articles to Global Studies of Childhood: *15 September 2026 *

Peer review and revisions: *September 2026 – November 2026*

Feedback / Acceptance: *15 November 2026*

Anticipated submission date for the Themed Issue: *15 March 2027*

Please Note: all accepted articles can be published online first with 
SAGE Journals and provide authors with an accepted, reviewed paper at 
that time with all scholarly attributes awarded.

About the Journal:

/Global Studies of Childhood/ is a space for peer-reviewed research and 
discussion about issues that pertain to children in a world context, and 
in contemporary times. Journal description:

https://journals.sagepub.com/overview-metric/GSC 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/overview-metric/GSC>

For a full version of the call, see: 
https://journals.sagepub.com/page/gsc/call-for-papers 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/page/gsc/call-for-papers>

About the Editors:

*Helena Sandberg *is**Professor of Media and Communication Studies, Lund 
University, Sweden. She is the PL of DIGKIDS Sweden, researching the 
introduction of digital media in early childhood, and member of the 
Swedish advisory group for policy on Children and Youth's Digital Media 
use, and Health.

*Olu Jenzen *is**Professor of Media and Digital Culture, University of 
Southampton, UK, with expertise in LGBTQ+ social media youth cultures. 
She is PL on the AHRC-funded project Creativity, Community & Resilience, 
researching trans and gender diverse young people’s collective 
resilience and community building in the UK through a strength-based and 
youth-led participatory approach.

*Tessa Lewin*is a Senior Research Fellow in the Participation, Inclusion 
and Social Change cluster at the Institute of Development Studies, 
University of Sussex, UK, specialising in gender politics, sexuality, 
visual activism, and child rights. She co-led the Rejuvenate project 
<https://rejuvenate.global/about-rejuvenate/>on children’s rights and 
participation.


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