A leading academic from the University of Leeds has joined an influential panel of experts on the newly-launched Digital Futures Commission.
Professor Mark Mon-Williams has been announced as a Commissioner for the organisation, which launched today on World Children’s Day.
The Commission which will look at how best to put children’s interests at the centre of design of the digital world, bringing together toy company LEGO, policymakers, regulators and academics.
Professor Mon-Williams holds the Chair in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Leeds and is a Turing Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national data analytics centre. He is also an executive member of the Born in Bradford project - a study following the lifelong development of more than 13,500 children.
He said: “I’m delighted to join the Digital Futures Commission and help build the digital world that children deserve.
“The Commission has an ambitious research programme and I’m confident that looking holistically at the issue – across psychology, data, and technology – will enable us to develop digital technologies that allow children and young people to thrive.”
The Digital Futures Commission will focus on three areas: 'Play in a digital world', 'Beneficial uses of education data', and 'Guidance for innovators'. Each of these strands of work will be accompanied by a research programme and outputs geared toward real world change for children.
It is led by Sonia Livingstone OBE and hosted by the 5Rights Foundation. The other commissioners come from a wide group of expert organisations, including:
- BBC Research & Development North Lab
- Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation
- EY
- Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop
- LEGO
- London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
- Technological University Dublin
- The Alan Turing Institute
- The Behavioural Insights Team·
Further information
See the Digital Futures Commission website for more details.
You can contact the University of Leeds press team by emailing pressoffice@leeds.ac.uk