UKZN Conference Focuses on Digital Experiences of Young People

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The SA Research Chair (SARChI) in Gender and Childhood Sexuality, Professor Deevia Bhana, hosted a one-day conference titled: ‘Young People, Gender and Digital Life Today’.

Scholars, practitioners, policymakers and postgraduate students gathered at the event to examine the digital experiences of young people, with a focus on gender, sexuality and gender justice.

The conference featured two keynote speakers whose work exemplifies engaged, transnational scholarship.

A well-known scholar on gender and development Professor Lakshmi Lingam of D Y Patil University in India, delivered her keynote address titled: ‘Democratising Digital Citizenship: Reimagining Gendered Risks, Safety and Protection’, urging participants to consider digital equity through lenses of justice and care. Lingam recently co-edited a book titled: Digital Technologies and Gendered Realities with Professor Nolwazi Mkhwanazi of the University of Pretoria.

The other keynote speaker, Dr Godfrey Dalitso Kangaude, an activist-scholar from Nyala Institute in Malawi, presented on: ‘At Home with Children, Sex and Sexuality’, emphasising that young people’s rights are matters of justice and demonstrating how scholarship on gender, childhood sexuality and advocacy can transform young people’s lives.

Programme highlights included presentations from scholars from UKZN, Nelson Mandela University, the University of Pretoria, University of the Witwatersrand and doctoral candidates exploring topics such as girls’ image-sharing practices, selfie cultures, pornography, compensated relationships and emoji-driven intimacies.

Cross-sectoral roundtables featured legal experts, social workers, child protection advocates and gender commissioners, fostering dialogue between research, policy and practice. They reflect the work undertaken by the SARChI chair to ensure broader impact through dialogue with the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE), Childline, Trulife, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Department of Social Development (DSD).

The conference addressed critical questions including the regulation of social media for minors which provided a starting point for discussions on young people, gender and sexuality in the digital age. Young people’s right to digital sexual citizenship and participation in social, cultural and political life was asserted as well as their need for protection. The conference provided an opportunity to connect South African scholarship to wider Global South perspectives, including Malawi and India. It also provided a space for critical scholarship, advocacy and mentorship for a new generation of scholars working in the field.

The conference builds on the recently published book by Bhana titled: Gender and Young People’s Digital Sexual Cultures (Palgrave Macmillan), providing a foundation for continued scholarship and dialogue with children, young people, gender and digital life in the Global South.

Watch the conference here.

Words: NdabaOnline

Photograph: Supplied