Blueprint for a Good Digital Society
June 2026 - November 2026
Funded by ESRC via the Digital Good Network
Co-I: John Potter, UCL
Using the following prompt: In a digital good society children will have access to hybrid (digital, virtual and analogue) arts education in formal schooling to allow them to critically engage with technologies, related systems and agendas, I have identified formal education and a blueprint for how arts and media education can be combined and introduced to late primary/ early secondary school children.
The blueprint project for educational policy and related industry stakeholders has evolved from our DGN funded project “Exploring children’s notions of what makes a digital good/bad society using hybrid art practice”, which produced evidence that using arts as a form of media education was a successful way of critically engaging young users with technologies, related systems and ideologies. Specifically, in relation to smart phones, smart objects, AI and gaming. Policy connected to children’s relationship to these technologies is shifting from making industry and platform providers responsible for children’s digital wellbeing (i.e., UK Online Safety Act, 2023) to new moves to blanket ban under 16s from social media. Organisations like the Five Rights Foundation have questioned the effectiveness of this. To this end, this blueprint would show how arts education could help inform children’s formal media education and fill a gap in current curricula and policy.
Our blueprint entitled: “Children’s critical engagement with technology in a digital good society: the case for hybrid arts education in formal schooling” is one of 15 commissioned and will form a series to be published simultaneously by the Digital Good Network which is advancing understanding of what a good digital society looks like and how we get there.
1. Digital Governance for urban administration in the Global South in a good digital society.
Fenna Imara Hoefsloot, University College London
Ayona Datta, University College London
2. Digital death in a good digital society
Eva Nieto McAvoy, King’s College London
3. Environmentally sustainable use of generative AI in Schools in a good digital society
Miles Berry, University of Roehampton
Arif Mahmud, University of Roehampton
4. Digital spaces to support survivors of human trafficking in a digital good society
Sohail Jannesari, King’s College London
Sharli Paphitis, King’s College London
5. Rest, calm and downtime in a good digital society
Tina Kendall, Anglia Ruskin University
6. Connected families in a good digital society
Murray Goulden, University of Nottingham
Jenny van Hooff, Manchester Metropolitan University
7. Digital platforms with and for autistic people ina good digital society
Nelya Koteyko, Queen Mary, University of London
Belén Barros Pena, City St George’s, University of London
8. A good city AI ecosystem: the case of Manchester
Richard Whittle, Salford University
Sherelle Fairweather, Manchester City Council
James Ransom, freelance
9. Inclusive and safe virtual reality in a good digital society
Oliver Merry, Sheffield Hallam University
Kate Whitfield, Sheffield Hallam University
10. Digital tools to support food sharing in a good digital society: the case of community-based initiatives for migrants/refugees
Sara Marino, London College of Communication, University of the Arts
11. Digital infrastructures of cooperative care: adult domiciliary social care in a good digital society
Genevieve Shanahan, Cardiff University
Maria Daskalaki, Oxford Brookes University
Emma Back, Equal Care Co-op
Maimoona Waseem, Nottingham Trent University
12. Digital-first museums and community-hosted heritage initiative in a good digital society
Daniel McNeil, University of Birmingham
Chamion Caballero, The Mixed Museum
Dhiraj Murthy, University of Texas at Austin
Kennya Souza, University of Birmingham
13. Just and ethical film-making with/without Gen-AI in a good digital society
Sylvia Hayes, University of Exeter
Emilie Vrain, University of Oxford
14. Anti-ableist data and algorithmic sustems in a good digital society
Denis Newman-Griffis, University of Sheffield
Bonnielin Swenor, Johns Hopkins University
Lauren Scattergood, University of Sheffield