Children, youth and digital media webinars

Digital media shapes contemporary social life, influencing how children and young people learn, interact, and perceive themselves and one another. Taking into account the lack of cognitive, social, emotional, and physical maturity, children and youth are considered more vulnerable to risks and harm in the digital environment. However, as early and intense users of new technologies, they usually find new opportunities in engaging with the digital sphere such as constructing identities, building social capital, learning technological skills or engaging in civic movements. So, being active and participating in the digital world is a right of children and crucial to them to become participative citizens in our digital society.

This initiative is organised by ESE/IPS International semester - curricular unit Children, Youths and Digital Media, by the research project Information Skills for Young People of the Digital Age (CIJED)/Information Skills for Young People of the Digital Age Research Project ESE/IPS and by the ICT Competence Center ESE/IPS (under the responsibility of the Directorate-General for Education which integrates the Portuguese Safer Internet Centre). Details of the individual webinars follow.

Webinar #1: European research on children and the internet: a focus on digital parenting

Thursday, 25 March 2021, 9:30 to 11:30 (Lisbon time)

Speaker: Cristina Ponte, Full Professor at NOVA FCSH and senior researcher at ICNOVA (NOVA Instituto de Comunicação)

The first part of the presentation introduces the longitudinal research conducted by the EU Kids Online network (2006 to present), showing how the questions and framework have evolved and contributed to international programmes and orientations regarding children’s rights in the digital context. The second part is focused on research results of digital parenting in Portugal.

Webinar #2: Children and digital go to school: mediating and enabling the possibilities

Thursday, 22 April 2021, 9:30 to 11:30 (Lisbon time)

Speaker: Teresa Sofia Castro, Post-doctoral researcher and integrated researcher at ICNOVA - FCSH – UNL

This lesson starts by analysing the social and technological contexts in which children nowadays grow up. Children's first digital media socialisation spaces are the family and the school to which they respond with self-socialisation and reverse socialisation processes. Through examples collected in research, the speaker will guide participants to think critically about the challenges at stake and mediation approaches to foster a better digital environment for children.

Webinar #3: "My privacy, whose rules?" - Digital literacy in hyperconnected times

Thursday, 6 May 2021, 9:30 to 11:30 (Lisbon time)

Speaker: Ana Jorge, Research Coordinator at the Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies (CICANT), and Associate Professor at Lusófona University.

This session will present the topic of privacy online in between technical and economic infrastructures on the one hand, and ordinary users' critical and functional skills in operating with an increasingly complex environment of algorithms and platforms in the digital world on the other.

Webinar #4: Young children and digital media

Thursday, 20 May 2021, 9:30 to 11:30 (Lisbon time)

Speaker: Patrícia Dias, Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Human Sciences (FCH) at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP) and an integrated researcher at the Research Centre for Communication and Culture (CECC).

This lecture addresses the digital practices of young children, looking at how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted them. The speaker will explore the important role of parents and educators as mediators of digital technologies, and discuss how they can help children choose good digital content and activities, and support them in developing the necessary media literacy to cope with the digital environment, in a critical, safe and beneficial way.

Important information

Registration is free and mandatory at projectos.ese.ips.pt/acd/ by following the instructions below:

1. Create an account (click on “criar conta”).
2. Enter your details.
3. Sign in the platform to choose the webinars you want to sign up for (click on "clique para fazer a inscrição numa formação ou evento" at the top on the left).
4. Choose the webinars you want to sign up for (click on "inscrever" on the right side).
5. The links for the webinars will be sent by email after the registration.

All participants will receive a certificate.

Find out more about the work of the Portuguese Safer Internet Centre, including its awareness raising, helpline, hotline and youth participation services – or find similar information for Safer Internet Centres throughout Europe.