Watch Your Kids! On the Politicization of Adult-Child Relationships Through Media Technologies
From tracking devices to facial recognition age checks, digital technology quietly shapes what childhood means today. This project investigates the design and visual cultures of these systems, and how they guide political imaginaries between adults and children.
For the past year or two, a wave of new regulations has aimed to keep children out of digital spaces, including social media bans for those under sixteen. These measures picture children as vulnerable users who need protection from harmful online interactions, data collection, and other technological risks. However, children’s digital lives are not reduced to online social activity. From smartwatches designed for kids to facial recognition algorithms used for age verification, or the digital archives of thousands of images parents share, digital technology shapes not only what children do online, but also how their relationships with adults take form.
At the Collegium, Bérénice will develop Watch Your Kids!, a video essay on how digital systems contribute to defining what childhood means today, and how their design choices reflect broader political views, uncovering power dynamics underlying adult-child relationships. By looking closely at the infrastructures that organize children’s digital lives, the project questions current protectionist approaches and explores other ways of thinking about children's autonomy and agency in networked societies.