Stranger Things’ most recent season, which set Netflix viewership milestones and had an estimated budget of $30 million per episode, has a subplot focused around a famed conspiracy of satanism tied to children playing Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) in the 1980s. And it’s one that does a pretty good job mirroring the issues society has with conspiracy theory today. On […] … learn more→

It is school holidays in Australia and, in many parts of the country, it’s also raining and bitterly cold. This means many children are stuck indoors and many parents will be grappling with how much “screen time” their kids are having. As as early childhood researcher and parent to a four-year-old, this is a question […] … learn more→

As any parent will tell you, a common feature of the school holidays is an increase in squabbling kids. Whether in the back of the car, at the park or by the TV, you will hear the whingey sounds of “Muuuum, Ollie just called me a stupid head!”. School holidaysHours of squabbling already at 730amGoogles […] … learn more→

The development of digital technologies and the resulting socio-cultural changes have encouraged adolescents to evolve in virtual environments. Their constant connection and the resulting supposed reliance on smartphones and digital networks arouses distrust, even concern, among those of us who did not grow up in a similar situation. But there is another way of analyzing and […] … learn more→

Recent outrage surrounding a young children’s toy “vlogger” set echoes moral panics of the past, particularly when words such as children, play and digital come together. Aldi recently released a new range of wooden toys, including the Vlogger set for children aged 3 and older. This set has sparked discussion on Twitter, including criticism. As researchers who explore the […] … learn more→

They say that Mick Jagger, the leader of the Rolling Stones, said that everything worth doing is worth overdoing (” Anything worth doing is worth overdoing “). Music, which has made the Rolling Stones so famous, is one of the activities that societies have valued and practiced the most. The songs appear in social events to express group […] … learn more→

Drawing is one of children’s favorite activities. From scribbling to more accomplished productions, their drawings tell us about their environment . However, children are immersed in a consumer culture and academic works converge to emphasize that the consumer society is particularly investigated by them when they draw. Based on this observation, researchers interested in this field are increasingly using these […] … learn more→

John Hughes’s novel The Dogs has been withdrawn from the longlist for the Miles Franklin Prize after an investigation by The Guardian identified numerous instances of plagiarism. Hughes’s lifting of passages from other books has sparked furious debate and literary detective work – mostly on Twitter – prompting questions about the nature of influences, literary pastiche and […] … learn more→

The development of digital technologies, and the consequent sociocultural change, has encouraged the adolescent population to participate in virtual environments. This permanent connection and supposed dependence on their smartphones and digital networks arouses suspicion, if not concern, on the part of those of us who did not grow up in a similar situation. But there is […] … learn more→

Technology has increasingly blurred the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds. This has led to dramatic shifts in daily life and changed the way children and adolescents live, socialise, move around and learn. Never before has this been so evident than at the onset of the COVID pandemic and the subsequent exponential rise in technology and […] … learn more→