This invited commentary focuses on the axiological role of “children” and “good childhoods” within public debates about control and regulation of everyday digital cultures. It consider contrasting approaches to direct state control, social norms and big tech in respect of children from China and Australia in order to open up discussions about the role of digital regulation, commercial powers and the changing role of the state.

The commentary aims to stimulate debate around three themes. First, how children and childhoods are often excluded from debates in communication research – a significant theoretical and cultural gap within the wider discipline; secondly, how the Anglo American political economy of Australia shares both similarities and differences with the perceived more authoritarian societies of China thus positioning the Asian Pacific as a key area for focus on the new forms of digital regulation; and thirdly how children and youth themselves provide both proxy and good cause for mechanisms around social control in respect of digital culture.