The Place of ‘Childhood’ in Internet Content Regulation

This paper discusses recent policy calculations in the UK concerning the Internet and child protection issues. Through an analysis of official documents, conference presentations, interviews and press reports, a story is pieced together of the culture of policy making. Problems are made visible, social agents mobilized and techniques invented for the enactment of policy. Central to my argument is an analysis of how childhood is figured discursively as a particular problem for regulation. Policy decisions are made, not in relation to ‘real’ children, but in relation to their representation and the authority of those who claim to represent them. I focus specifically on the circulation of three images of the child: the child-as-victim, the child-in-danger and the dangerous child.