Postgraduate Course: Measuring Online Harms to Children (fusion on-site) (EFIE11329)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | In this course, students will learn how our current hyper digital world creates both opportunities and harms for children. Students will engage with a range of issues in this field including cyberbullying, online hate crimes, online child sexual abuse material, safety by design concepts as well as new and emerging threats (such as online sexual extortion). Students will also learn about new and emerging technologies such as eXtended reality environments and the measurement and safeguarding challenges in these environments. |
| Course description |
The course will be taught in a hybrid 'fusion' format with a two-week pre-intensive part of the course leading up to a two-day intensive sessions followed by the two-week post intensive sessions.
Pre-Intensive Period:
In the pre-intensive part of the course (2 weeks) students will engage with different technology and gaming platforms and hear from experts in the field through two pre-recorded guest lectures and case studies that present safeguarding and measurement challenges and opportunities in relation to online harms. Students will also engage with literature on safety by design, transparency and regulatory concepts. During the pre-intensive week, students will create a profile on a social media, gaming or other platform (e.g. discord, etc) and spend 2 hours on that platform. They will then write a 500 word reflective piece on what the potential opportunities and harms might be to children on that platform and a reflection on the safety by design features.
Intensive Period:
In the two-day intensive, student will get an opportunity to see different tech platforms, equipment (headsets) and environments in use and will work in small groups to discuss the opportunities for improving children's rights and engagement with technology and challenges for safeguarding. Students will also engage with experts who are attempting to improve safety by design including age verification and other features. Finally, students will engage in debates around the current issues such as end-to-end encryption and the implications for child protection and privacy.
Post-Intensive Period:
In the post-intensive students will take the work they started in the intensive session and working in groups will organise a debate, informed by evidence, around key controversial issues in measuring and preventing online harms (e.g., end to end encryption and the privacy and child protection debate). Each group will prepare and pre-record a PowerPoint presentation on their chosen issue using literature from a list of sources provided, prompting discussion and debate between the different groups and their viewpoints. Students will be assigned as moderators to follow debate rules and each student should contribute at least one additional evidence-informed point to the debate for their side online.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - On-Site Fusion Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. This approach (our 'fusion' teaching model) offers students flexible and inclusive ways to study, and the ability to choose whether to be on-campus or online at the level of the individual course. It also opens up ways for diverse groups of students to study together regardless of geographical location. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities.
Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- Unless the lecturer or tutor indicates otherwise you should assume the session is being recorded.
As part of your course, you will need access to a personal computing device. Unless otherwise stated activities will be web browser based and as a minimum we recommend a device with a physical keyboard and screen that can access the internet.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 20 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 2,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 14,
Fieldwork Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
80 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Summative Assessment:
The course will be assessed by means of the following assessment components:
1) 500 Word Reflective Piece (30%)
Students will sign up for and make a new profile on a social media platform, app, or other online environment (e.g., mindcraft, discord, etc) and spend two hours navigating through the features and interacting with others where appropriate. Students will reflect on the potential opportunities for children as well as potential harms that could present themselves on this platform/app/environment for children. Students will also briefly reflect on the safety by design features they encounter on the app/platform/environment. Students will post this on the discussion forum.
2) Debate PPT Presentation and Discussion (70%)
Students will be assigned to two or more groups and will prepare an evidence-based argument for a particularly timely and emerging issue related to online harms to children (for example - the end to end encryption debate). Each team will prepare and pre-record their debate presentation using a list of provided resources and will post this to the learn site. This mark will be assessed as a group across several criteria:
a) Using materials from resource list provided in arguments.
b) Covering a range of potential perspectives/issues under the theme.
c) Linking to other learning from the course.
Each team will also designate one or two of their members to act as moderators for the subsequent online discussion. Each student will be encouraged for making at least one evidence-informed discussion point and interacting with members from the other team but this will not be assessed. |
| Feedback |
Formative Feedback:
- Intensive session activities during course will receive feedback from peers and staff.
- Discussion of issues and questions during course organiser's office hours.
Summative Feedback:
- Reflective piece - student and teacher feedback.
- Debate - student and teacher feedback. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the prevalence and nature of various online harms to children and the challenges in measurement.
- Demonstrate an advanced understanding of the challenges for preventing online harms and also the opportunities for enhancing children's rights through engagement with technology, online and other emerging environments.
- Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of safety by design, transparency and regulatory concepts for child protection.
- Critically engage in ethical and emerging issues surrounding online and technology-facilitated harms towards children.
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Reading List
Indicative Reading List:
Essential Reading:
Ofcom and Revealing Reality. Research into risk factors that may lead children to harm online. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/245163/children-risk-factors-report.pdf
Livingstone, S. (2013) Online risk, harm and vulnerability: reflections on the evidence base for child Internet safety policy. ZER: Journal of Communication Studies, 18 (35). pp. 13-28. ISSN 1137-1102
ECPAT International (2022). Disrupting Harm - Conversations with Young Survivors about Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. Global Partnership to End Violence against Children.
https://www.end-violence.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/Disrupting%20Harm-Conversations%20with%20young%20survivors%20about%20online%20child%20sexual%20exploitation%20and%20abuse.pdf
Recommended Reading:
Australia e-Safety Commissioner, briefs and videos on safety by design and other concepts such as transparency and regulation: https://www.esafety.gov.au/industry/safety-by-design
Hartung, P. The children's rights-by-design standard for data use by tech companies. Florence: UNICEF Innocenti, https://www.unicef.org/globalinsight/media/1286/file/%20UNICEF-Global-Insight-DataGov-data-use-brief-2020.pdf
Further Reading:
Disrupting Harm country reports: https://www.end-violence.org/disrupting-harm |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- Enquiry and lifelong learning
- Outlook and engagement
- Research and enquiry
- Personal and intellectual autonomy
- Personal effectiveness
- Communication |
| Keywords | Online Harm,Safety by Design,Technology,Children and Young People,Child Protection,EFI,Level 11,PG |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Deborah Fry
Tel: (0131 6)51 4796
Email: Debi.Fry@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Yasmine Lewis
Tel:
Email: yasmine.lewis@ed.ac.uk |
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