Description:

Throughout the academic year, the Center for Latinx Digital Media invites you to a series of weekly seminars held over Zoom on Thursdays. You can now register (click here) to the next seminar of the Fall 2021 quarter, happening next Thursday, September 30 at 12-1 PM US CT. Professor Matías Dodel (Universidad Católica del Uruguay) will give a presentation entitled “Not every stranger means danger: Latin American kids’ responses to online friendship requests.”

Abstract: A critical period for human development, childhood involves inherent tensions between safety and autonomy. Among children’s digitally mediated and increasingly autonomous social interactions, online contacts with strangers are heated issues for parents and policy makers. Usually guided by moral panics and seldom by evidence nor listening to children’s experiences, Kids Online Latin America studies allow us to discuss the processes and psychosocial factors associated with kids’ reactions to online friendship requests, and their risks and benefits.

Matías Dodel (He/him) holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Haifa and is currently an Associate Professor at Universidad Católica del Uruguay. His research interests focus on digital inequalities, social stratification, and digital safety. He has developed the Uruguayan chapters of Global Kids Online, DiSTO, and official ICT surveys.

This event is co-sponsored by the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, the Center for Global Culture and Communication, the Department of Communication Studies, the Department of Radio/Television/Film, the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, and the Latina and Latino Studies Program.