Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/126602
Title: Balancing children's rights to participation, provision and protection in the digital world : a focus on excessive use
Other Titles: Navigating the Maltese mediascape
Authors: Farrugia, Lorleen
Keywords: Children's rights
Internet and children
Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989 November 20)
Parenting
Technology and children
Child welfare
Online social networks -- Safety measures
Parent and child
Issue Date: 2019
Publisher: Kite Publications
Citation: Farrugia, L. (2019). Balancing children’s rights to participation, provision and protection in the digital world: A focus on excessive use. In J. Borg & M.A. Lauri (Eds.), Navigating the Maltese Mediascape (pp. 123-135). Valletta: Kite Publications.
Abstract: New media can provide children with several opportunities for education, access to information, social connectedness, entertainment, and civic engagement, among others. Such opportunities are frequently accompanied by online risks and the possible harms associated to them. Protecting children from such harms is often prioritized over access to these opportunities. A frequently proposed solution to avert harm suggests that children are only allowed limited screen time. This chapter argues that this is a misguided solution, particularly if children's rights to provision and participation specified in the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child as applied to the digital world are overlooked. The varied concerns about excessive use are both warranted but also exacerbated by fear for children's safety and media panics. Rather than limiting screen time and as a consequence, their opportunities to access, a concerted effort that involves all the stakeholders is required. Children and adults alike require sufficient knowledge and support to learn about their rights, responsibilities and self-regulation. This would enable them access to the benefits of the online world together with the appropriate protection from possible harms.
URI: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/126602
ISBN: 9789995750732
Appears in Collections:Scholarly Works - FacSoWPsy



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