I co-organised a symposium which brought together 12 in-person and 6 online participants to discuss the similar and diverse approaches to regulating children’s internet use across countries in the Asia Pacific and their implications on children, young people and families.

It consisted of six sessions, beginning with a keynote speech by Professor Sun Sun Lim from Singapore Management University and followed by four panel discussions focusing on different aspects of regulating children’s internet use across national and cultural contexts. Some of the key questions discussed in the symposium include:

• Why does the idea of this kind of regulation appeal to politicians, society and visions for children?
• What kind of evidence counts and for whom in the discussions about regulation?
• What does this kind of legislation say about our societies’ attitudes towards children, childhood and children’s rights?
• What does the global movement around social media bans for children say about the wider conditions of national and international regulation of the internet?
• What are the likely trajectories for success and how is that defined in these movements?
• What are the roles of social science, children’s rights advocates and scholars of childhood in these debates?

A deflated account and some of videos from the symposium can be found here