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euCONSENT

A child-rights approach to online age assurance and parental consent solutions.

Designing a system of child protection for the digital environment that is truly rights-respecting is an important task, and one that many families are calling for.

Prof Sonia Livingstone

euCONSENT is an EU-funded research and development initiative bringing together twelve partners including academic institutions, NGOs and technology providers to design, deliver and pilot a new Europe-wide system for online age verification and parental consent. Designed with a child rights perspective in mind, the solution aims to protect children from online harm by restricting their access to age-inappropriate content, such as sexually explicit or violent content, gambling, or purchasing age-restricted goods.

Led by Upcom, the18-month project aims to demonstrate an interoperable technical infrastructure dedicated to the implementation of child protection mechanisms (such as age verification) and parental consent mechanisms as required by relevant EU legislation, such as the Audio-Visual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Read findings report

Final project summary

Professor Sonia Livingstone, a leading expert on child rights in the digital age who heads LSE’s research team, explains:

“The challenge will be to serve children’s best interests by balancing their rights to protection and safety with their rights to participation, inclusion and privacy, among other rights. It’s great that this project will consult European children from the outset, and be guided by their views also in formulating the project results.”

LSE research activities

The focus of the LSE team is on ensuring that a child rights perspective is integral to the development of technological solutions. The team is using a rapid evidence review to assess the evidence on age verification and parental control solutions as grounded in the everyday lives of families and children. Particular attention is paid to illuminating the experiences of vulnerable, marginalised or at-risk children and families, for example, disabled children, those living in foster care, migrant or refugee children. The findings of the review will inform the development of system features and user requirements underpinning the technological solutions delivered by the partner organisations.

Funding

This research is funded by a grant from the European Commission: PPPA-AGEVER-01-2020: “Outline and trial an infrastructure dedicated to the implementation of child rights and protection mechanisms in the online domain.”

Project outputs

LSE team members

SoniaLivingstone

Professor Sonia Livingstone
Principal Investigator

Interests and expertise: media and everyday life; media audiences; children and digital media; media literacy; children’s rights in the digital environment; mediated participation; online risks, privacy and safety; media regulation in the public interest.

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Dr Mariya Stoilova
Research Officer

Interests and expertise: digital technologies, well-being, and family support; social change and transformations of intimate life; citizenship and social inequalities.

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Dr Svetlana Smirnova
Research Officer

Interests and expertise: self-tracking for health & wellness, health communication and nutritional practices, data collection, tracking routines, reflexivity surrounding personal data.

Get in touch

We are happy to hear from you! If you want to learn more about the project, please get in touch via email. We can be reached at: 

Professor Sonia Livingstone at  s.livingstone@lse.ac.uk

Dr Mariya Stoilova at M.Stoilova@lse.ac.uk

Dr Svetlana Smirnova at s.smirnova@lse.ac.uk

Related projects

  • Digital Futures Commission – a research collaboration of organisations that invites innovators, policymakers, regulators, academics and civil society, to unlock digital innovation in the interests of children and young people.
  • CO:RE (Children Online: Research and Evidence) – a project aiming at creating a Knowledge Base together with a range of actors and stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds, such as educators, researchers, and policymakers.
  • ySKILLS – a project exploring how children’s digital skills benefit their well-being.
  • Global Kids Online – a project aiming to generate and sustain a rigorous cross-national evidence base around children’s use of the internet.
  • Children's data and privacy online – a project on children’s understanding of privacy and datafication online, capacity to consent, and child rights demands.

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