Event Details

In this webinar, Professor Julia Gillen will present findings from the most substantial UK-wide study to date exploring how children aged 0–3 interact with digital technologies in the home.

We are delighted to welcome Professor Julia Gillen as our inaugural speaker. Professor Gillen is a leading scholar in digital childhoods and literacy studies at Lancaster University, where she directs internationally recognised research on how children and families engage with communication technologies in everyday life. Her interdisciplinary work spans education, linguistics, and media studies, with a particular focus on young children’s agency in the digital age.

In this talk, she will present findings from the most substantial UK-wide study to date exploring how children aged 0–3 interact with digital technologies in the home. Drawing on surveys, interviews with parents and early years professionals, and detailed home-based case studies (including multilingual households), the session introduces the concept of the post-digital home, where digital tools are seamlessly woven into daily family life.

Professor Gillen will focus on:

• How young children use smart speakers and voice assistants
• Children’s emerging rights, agency, and creativity in digital environments
• Implications for families, educators, and policy
• Two new infographics designed to make research findings accessible to wider audiences

The session will invite critical reflection on what justice means in young children’s digital lives and how we can better listen to and support children in these evolving spaces.

We warmly welcome practitioners, researchers, policy professionals and all with an interest in childhood, family life and digital technologies.