The digital world is a prevalent feature of most children’s lives: Over 97% of children aged 3-17 have been online, a third of internet users are children and the daily average screen time for teenagers is over eight and a half hours (Livingstone et al 2016; 5rights foundation, 2024). Governments, for good reason, have devoted significant attention to protecting children from online harm and exposure to unsafe content (eg UK’s Online Safety Act 2023). Recent initiatives have been focused on protecting children’s well-being and best interests (Article 3(1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)) rather than on the impact on children’s substantive rights, such as participation rights (Articles 12-17 CRC); education rights (Articles 28 and 29 CRC) and the right to play (Article 31 CRC).
Access to the internet presents many challenges to, and opportunities for, children’s rights (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2021), but government responses prioritise adult-centric concepts of welfare, best interests and well-being over guaranteeing the realisation of children’s rights (Collinson, 2022). This tension between competing dominant paternalistic, protectionist discourse on best interests and children’s participation rights draws focus away from children’s agency and autonomy to decide for themselves. In this presentation, I argue that although there is no specific child’s ‘right’ to protection in the UNCRC, a child’s rights approach to protection must be decoupled from a paternalistic welfare approach to addressing potential online harm. Instead, I argue that a child’s rights approach to protection should reshape the law’s response to online risks for children and challenge the paternalistic concept of child’s best interests and child protection which dominates (eg the UK’s Age-Appropriate Design Code). A children’s right’s approach to protection is consistent with the CRC and aligns with a more holistic approach to children’s rights (UNCRC, 2021).

We live in a technological age with every child alive today having been born after the launch of the internet, the social media juggernaut Facebook (now Meta), and for those under 15 years of age after the launch of the first iPhone.
A modern-day child’s ability to use technology is almost innate; Yet, their every-day access to such technology is managed and controlled, for better or worse, by the adult figures in each child’s life whether that be their parent or guardian or educator, for example. On a bigger scale, their access is also managed and controlled by age restricted classification systems or terms and conditions, paywalls, even country or regional restrictions. Nonetheless, a technologically savvy and/or resourceful child could maneuver around these controls by using technology like VPNs.
Where does childhood end and a technological takeover begin? What rights do children have to access technology, for example social media, and what responsibilities do adults have to regulate this for the child’s physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing?
In September 2024, the Australian Federal Government announced plans to introduce legislation to regulate children’s use and access to social media platforms by setting a minimum age requirement. While the actual age number is yet to be announced, it is possible that this age may be higher than the age of criminal responsibility in most Australian states and territories; which has begged the question, how can a child be too young for social media but old enough to be criminally responsible?
This paper, and presentation, will compare and analyse Australia’s planned legislation with similar international legislative approaches, and attempt to answer the questions posed regarding the rights of a child to access social media and how this is, or is not, balanced against perceived, and real needs to protect children from harm.

In a world where sexual abuse is being campaigned against, analysed in royal commissions, policing reformed to enable better processes for victims, and there has been a groundswell of public support (#metoo) our young people are increasingly being exposed to hardcore loveless sexual encounters and are copying what they see. There is no disputing that young people have more access to electronics and the associate knowledge than ever in the history of time. The problem is that it is enabling young people to become exposed to things earlier and more graphically then ever. Pornography access and content is also evolving with the social influence. The transition from magazines to graphic movies is well known. However porn movies are increasingly being self-made via phone cameras, and websites are marketing self-made porn (such as onlyfans). The implication of this on young developing minds is complex. This workshop briefly reviews the massive changes in the production and marketing of porn. It then discusses some of the ways it is impacting young people.