This paper sets out the findings of an exploratory study that, drawing on the so-called ‘new sociology of childhood’, has theorised the child as a competent social actor and conjectured that, on this basis, whilst they might lack formal legal capacity, children may nevertheless possess legal capability. Taking a child-first (as opposed to a law-first) approach, the study has sought to assess children's legal understanding using digital gaming as a research tool. We have identified as an area of particular strength children's attitudes to gender equality, and we have determined that many children demonstrate competency to deal with consumer-related issues appropriately. However, at the other extreme, we have established that children demonstrate considerable uncertainty concerning the levels of force that adult authority figures are permitted to exercise over them. We have found in the course of this study that children are competent and willing to express their views on matters that concern them. However, they do not expect to be invited to do this in their day-to-day lives. Related to this we have found a vast lack of awareness among children concerning the rights afforded to them under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
There is a wide range of interest in gamification – with game design elements being used in an increasing number of non-game contexts. Yet, despite these developments, there has been little interest from the academic community in the potential opportunities that gamification presents in the research context. Law in Children’s Lives is an innovative project that has explored the use of a specially designed tablet-based game, Adventures with Lex, as a data collection tool. The game, developed using participatory design techniques, has been used as a means to investigate children’s perceptions of the law in their everyday lives. This article presents a case study of the processes and challenges involved in the development of the game which leads to a discussion of the implications of this study for the wider use of game-based research.
The aim of the project Law in Children's Lives is to gamify the research activity of collecting data with a digital game to assess children's awareness of law in their everyday lives. Our main research goal is to address the theoretical and practical concerns in gamification through a user(child)-centred experiential approach. We grounded the design and evaluation of the game in the established User Experience (UX) theoretical frameworks -Hassenzahl's hedonicpragmatic model and McCarthy & Wright's four threads of experience. The game prototype consists of four microworlds with each comprising a set of scenarios where children are asked to select an action option and record their reasons by talking to the non-player character. The game was evaluated with 634 children aged 7-11 years. The levels of perceived fun, interestingness and ease of playing were generally high. The game could stimulate the children to think about the given scenarios and beyond them.
Under Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, all children who are capable of forming their own views have the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting them. Through the use of innovative, participatory methods, the authors of this paper have gathered the views of over 600 children aged 8–11 years concerning the current age of criminal responsibility under English law. The aim of this article is to demonstrate what and how children think about the age of criminal responsibility; in the hope that children’s views, both individually and collectively, will both inform and influence debate on this significant issue. Through their analysis of children’s views, the authors demonstrate in this article that there exists for children a strong association between the notion of criminal responsibility and imprisonment. In light of this, the authors suggest that, alongside the discussions that are taking place around the appropriate age for setting criminal responsibility, priority must also be given to the consideration of steps that can and should be taken to increase children’s awareness of the English legal system to enhance their understanding of the criminal justice system and to improve their knowledge and understanding of children’s rights both in the context of wrong-doing, and more widely.
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