Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference 14-17th December 2016 Program Index

transmission, with focus on two concepts: ecology and insurrection. Media as ecology fuses with
climatological approaches to recent uprisings. How would this ecology clash in a social war with the
“environment of deprivation” that militarized police seek? Finally, I assess the new terrain as no longer
controlled by police but defined by what insurrectionists call “social war.” In all of these cases, mediated
actions are both transmitted and ritualistic—a format that doesn’t control outcomes.
9R
Children’s rights in the digital age (Chair, Amanda Third)
Kath Albury “Just because it’s public doesn’t mean it’s any of your business”: digital bystanders, workplace
ethics, and “sext education”
This paper considers the ways that responses to the Ashley Madison hack (which largely exposed the sexual
details of adult heterosexual men), and the 2014 “Fappening” photo hack (which exposed private sexual
images of adult female celebrities) can be seen to both align with, and depart from current educational
responses to young people”s digital practices. While many journalists and web-users scrambled to expose
and shame the adults exposed by the hacks, a counter-narrative emerged in online media, promoting what
might be considered an ethical bystander stance (Carmody 2009, 2015). This narrative challenged readers to
both actively avoid searching the lists of hacked information, and to avoid discussing/gossiping about the
hack in workplaces where colleagues were known to have been exposed (Lichfield 2015). In contrast, many
cybersafety and “sext education” campaigns still seek to deter of young people from digital practices of
sexual self-representation by raising the spectre of a sullied “digital footprint”, and inevitable public shame.
This mode of discourse tends to frame the “sexting teen” as lacking in agency, while simultaneously bearing
sole responsibility for the public exposure of her texts and pictures. I will reflect on the ways these
discourses might change if young people”s sexual and digital citizenship was recognised as being similar (if
not the same) to that of the adult victims of the 2014 and 2015 hacks.
Teresa Swist & Philippa Collin
age
The potential of a “networked-capabilities approach” for children’s rights in a digital
This presentation explores the implications of children’s “functionings”, “capabilities” and “rights” as their
practices are increasingly recorded, re-mixed and reified within digital infrastructures. Outlined is a typology
of platforms which document children’s wellbeing in particular ways: indicator platforms (e.g. UNICEF),
issue-based platforms (e.g. RErights) and transactional/big data platforms (e.g. commercial and government
platforms). We seek to understand the ways in which young people, researchers, industry and nongovernment
organisations can engage with these infrastructuring devices to unpack knowledge claims and
controversies in productive ways. Building on Papacharissi’s notion of “a networked self” (2010), and Sen’s
“capability approach” (1992) we consider the role new media environments play in both expanding and
limiting children’s choices and freedom. In response to the complexity and power relations of these
emerging data cultures, we introduce a “networked-capabilities approach” to inform theory and practice
related to children’s rights in the digital age.
Emma Keltie*, Delphine Bellerose, Kari Pihl, Amanda Third*
from Children around the world
Children”s Rights in the Digital Age: A download
Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child codifies children’s rights to express their views and to
participate in the decision-making processes that will impact their lives. With digital media becoming an
increasingly ubiquitous feature of children’s everyday lives around the world, there is an unprecedented
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