ABSTRACT
The rapidity with which digital, networked and online media and information technologies (hereafter, ‘the digital’ or ‘digital media’) have become embedded in children’s lives has been startling, triggering a revival of public hyperbole about media-related opportunities and risks, along with a burgeoning of argumentation and experimentation among social researchers keen to explore the significance of ‘the digital age’ for children and childhood (Livingstone, 2009a). In even the 2008 (second) edition of this volume, there was no reference to mobile, smart or personal devices, no social networking sites or online identities; just a mention of online surveys as an addition to the researcher’s toolbox. Until recently, it would seem that analysis of children’s experiences, social relations and lifeworlds implicitly prioritised face-to-face, physically co-located communication as the primary means through which their everyday lives are constituted and, therefore, the primary means through which research with children is to be conducted.
