⏰ More Than Robots #91 July 2025

fugit inreparabile tempus

Time flies like an arrow and yet also seems to go in circles. Here are some things to make the most of the time available.

📖 Research

Offline Factors Influencing the Online Safety of Adolescents with Family Vulnerabilities

Parental e-safety guidance was found to be a significant mediator for the association of family vulnerability and significant online harms

Research into persuasive design features and potential child financial harms

Over half of children who have gamed in the last month report they have bought something whilst gaming in the last month.

Everything to Play For

The erosion of space, time, and permission to play in public spaces has inevitably left many children with fewer places to go to play other than into the online world. Also: The Decline Of Play And The Rise Of Psychopathology In Children And Adolescents

Effects of Persuasive App Design and Self-Regulation on Young Children’s Digital Disengagement

Young children with lower self-regulation have more trouble stopping app play, especially with apps that use strong persuasive design

Addictive Screen Use Trajectories and Suicidal Behaviors, Suicidal Ideation, and Mental Health in US Youths

Addictive use of social media, video games, or mobile phones-but not total screen time-is associated with worse mental health among preteens

Manipulative digital marketing practices targeted at children and youth online

Marketing practices permeate nearly all aspects of children’s online lives, including their social media pages, the environments in which they play games, and the influencer videos they watch. Also: Advertising and the Online Safety Act and International consumer protection in mobile apps and games

A Minimum Digital Living Standard for UK Households in 2025

A minimum digital standard of living includes having accessible internet, adequate equipment, and the skills and knowledge that people need. It is about being able to communicate, connect, and engage with opportunities safely and with confidence

Smartphone Bans in Schools: A Qualitative Study on the Experiences of Students and Teachers

The stricter the phone ban the more students look for ways to subvert it

Understanding The Drivers And Impacts Of Digital Exclusion For Children And Young People’s Health

Children and young people may rely on the digital literacy of their parents or carers (including older people) to access health technology, however 16% of adults in the UK are unable to use their device and the internet by themselves. Also: Google AI search results and the health sector

🗳️Take Part

Youth Voices Forum

The Children’s Commissioner for England has launched the Youth Voices Forum to hear from young people.

What questions about digital technology and young children should researchers ask next?

Oxford University want to find out what questions families and educators have about digital technology and young children (aged 2 to 11 years) that could be answered by research.

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🧰 Resources

Online financial harms

Free lesson materials and on-demand CPD for teachers to protect pupils from a range of online financial harms that pose safeguarding as well as financial risks.

Opportunity Index Interactive Map

A Sutton Trust resource that shows access to opportunities for disadvantaged young people in England. Also: To Play or Not to Play: Mapping Unequal Provision of Children’s Playgrounds

Low Background Steel For AI

A library of text, images and video that were created prior to the explosion of AI-generated content that occurred in 2022.

Understanding and Responding to AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material

Guides, developed in collaboration with the National Crime Agency (NCA), providing essential information on understanding, identifying and responding to incidents involving AI-CSAM.

Children’s Rights-Based Indicators

The core indicators of each article in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and how to measure the implications of every CRC article in practical terms

💡Inspiration and opinion

Screen Sense: Parenting in a Digital World

'Why does (digital) parenting feel so hard?'

A learning curve? A landscape review of AI and education in the UK

If general-purpose AI is to become a feature of school education, then barriers to understanding the impact of AI and understanding the data and models used in some EdTech need to be tackled. Also: Against Technofeudal Education and Generative AI Outlook Report

Growing up digital: why early years media literacy matters

If we want every child – regardless of their background – to be able to navigate a digitally-saturated world, the foundational elements of digital media literacy must be a part of early years education.

The Hidden Cost of AI: How Africa Fuels Global AI While Being Left Behind

These children are not incidental to AI’s supply chain—they are foundational to it. Yet in the breathless coverage of AI’s possibilities, these children remain invisible, their suffering erased from the narrative of technological progress.

…and finally

Fascism - the game [Links to an X post]