About
Questioning KidTech explores the shift where much of children’s daily lives have moved into online spaces; and in this shifting reality, we ask what it means to be a child in these spaces. We need to understand what these digital spaces are, how they are experienced, and how they are shaping children’s social, cultural and economic lives.
There is an urgent need to fully understand these platforms in order to protect children’s digital rights and support parents/caregivers, educators and policy makers as they navigate the rapid changes in children’s digital lives.
Project Aims
This project asks the following research questions:
What is the "Tech" in KidTech?
We begin by exploring the commercial economies of KidTech as well as the technological affordances and constraints that shape how children experience the platforms.
What is the "Kid" in KidTech?
We question what it means to be a child in these spaces. Using a child studies lens, we will explore the ontological questions of “what is a child?” and “what is a childhood?” in the context of these new forms of digital capitalism and the encroachment of digital tech into the lives of young people.
How do children and families experience KidTech?
Our project seeks to understand how families, parents and children negotiate KidTech in their daily lives.
Project Timeline
Phase 1: Establish the Workings of the Industry
Is a critical insight into the logics and structures of the KidTech industry itself and how it is envisioning and defining the metaverse.
Phase 2: KidTech in the Home
Investigates children’s experiences of KidTech through interview both kids themselves and their parent to consider how KidTech functions in their domestic spaces.
Phase 3: KidTech and Global Childhoods
Addresses how children and families engage with KidTech in a global context.
Research Team
The Questioning KidTech Team is composed of members from institutions in Australia, the United States of America, Korea and Canada. This international partnership allows us to consider different approaches from key stakeholders including governments, industries, NGOs, educators and parents.
We are dedicated to providing graduate students with opportunities to further develop their research skills at each phase of this project.
Principal Investigators
Dr. Natalie Coulter
I am an Associate Professor in Communication and Media Studies and Director of the Institute for Digital Literacies (IRDL) at York University, Canada. I am co-author of Media and Communication in Canada (9th ed) and co-editor of Youth Mediations and Affective Relations (2019) and author of Tweening the Girl (2014). My work focuses on consumer culture, media culture, and digital media. I am interested in how young people engage in such spaces. Currently, I am working on a book project entitled Kids and Digital Capitalism. I have published on such topics as tween girls, Canadian media, masculinity and Playboy, research harassment, children’s digital cultures and family media practices.
Dr. Rebekah Willet
My research explores children’s media cultures, focusing on issues of gender, play, literacy and learning. Aligning with the sociology of childhood, I analyze how media is experienced differently in different childhoods. I connect my work with educational research that views children’s literacies as involving ‘webs of meaning’ that are formed within and through different contexts, purposes, and discursive practices. I aim to offer theoretical constructs to help understand children’s engagements with media as cultural practice. I have co-edited a number of books, including Children, Media, and Pandemic Parenting: Family Life in Uncertain Times (2024), Play, Creativity and Digital Cultures (2011) and Children, media and playground cultures: Ethnographic studies of school playtimes (2013).
Collaborators
Michael Dezuanni
I undertake research about digital media, literacies and learning in home, school and community contexts. I am the Program Leader for Digital Inclusion and Participation for QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre which produces world-leading research for a creative, inclusive and fair digital media environment. I am also a chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. I have been a chief investigator on six ARC Linkage projects with a focus on digital literacy and learning at school, the use of digital games in the classroom, digital inclusion in regional and rural Australia and in low income families, and the use of screen content in formal and informal learning.
Alison Harvey
I am an Associate Professor in the Communications program at Glendon College, York University. My research and teaching focuses on issues of inclusivity and accessibility in digital culture, with an emphasis on gender and labour in digital games. I am the author of Gender, Age, and Digital Games in the Domestic Context (2015, Routledge) and Feminist Media Studies (2019, Polity). Currently, I am president of the Canadian Game Studies Association.
Hyeon-Seon Jeong 정현선
TBD
Research Assistants
Chao-Yin Chan
I am a fourth-year undergraduate student at York for BCom. I joined the KidTech project after taking a course with Dr. Coulter and becoming interested in her research on media, marketing and youth engagement.
Louise Couceiro
I obtained my doctorate in Education from the University of Glasgow in 2023 and am currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford.
Caitlin Donnelly
I am a Master’s student in the Communication and Culture program, specializing in fan studies with a focus on textile-based fan practices, particularly cosplay.
Ana Hermeto Kubrusly
I am a PhD candidate in Communication Sciences, specializing in Contemporary Culture and New Technologies, at NOVA University of Lisbon.
Frésange Maleka
I am pursuing a PhD in Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies, with my dissertation examining how Black teenage girls navigate social media spaces that are structurally embedded with misogynoir.
Dee Marksman-Phillpotts
(they/them) I am a PhD student in Gender, Feminist, and Women's Studies at York University. My research interests center on the lived experiences of marginalized populations within educational and social contexts, emphasizing the intersectionality of identity and systemic inequality.
Maureen Mauk
I am a Visiting Research Fellow at York University’s Institute for Research on Digital Literacies and serve as the Senior Standards & Practices Analyst for Sony’s anime streaming platform, Crunchyroll.
Silja Mitange
I am a Master’s student in the Communications and Culture program at Toronto Metropolitan and York Universities. My research explores digital redlining, Black data governance, and the impact of AI on communications, particularly regarding marginalized voices.
Chelsea Russell
I am a PhD candidate at York University/Toronto Metropolitan University, where I am part of the Communications and Culture Program. I am also a Contract Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga Campus.
Victoria Sands
I am a PhD Candidate in Communication and Culture at Toronto Metropolitan University, where I focus on transmedia storytelling, girls' studies, and postfeminist media culture.
Erika Schestak
N/A
Katayoon Selehi
I am a sociotechnical researcher working at the intersection of technology, policy, and digital political economy, with a focus on the metaverse and AI.
Institutional Partners
Research Partners
