Digital Playgrounds: The Hidden Politics of Children’s Online Play Spaces, Virtual Worlds, and Connected Games

"In framing the implications of her inquiry around questions of children’s rights, Grimes’ work models the attention that these topics warrant and highlights the urgent stakes of children’s online play. This book charts a history and a theoretical framework that establishes a new and higher bar for children’s media research. It is a foundational text in contemporary children’s media studies and will remain so for the foreseeable future."

Meredith A. Bak, Rutgers University-Camden, Media Industries Journal

“The importance of play, and indeed, children’s right to play, has been long recognised. Yet in practice, play is increasingly curtailed, controlled and contested, especially online. In her meticulously researched book, Grimes dissects how we reached such a problematic situation and, importantly, how we might move forward so as to enable children’s playful possibilities in a digital world.” Sonia Livingstone, Professor of Social Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science

“This outstanding book offers a comprehensive and critical examination of children’s online play spaces, virtual worlds, and connected games. Sara M. Grimes provides an authoritative account of how digital play has much in common with traditional playground play, but also offers crucial insights into some of the differences in relation to issues such as privacy, censorship, ownership, and commercialization. This is a landmark book that will undoubtedly be the ‘go-to’ text in the years ahead for all those interested in the political landscape of children’s digital play.” Jackie Marsh, Professor of Education, University of Sheffield

"With Digital Playgrounds, Sara M. Grimes deftly cuts through the often simplistic and sanctimonious rhetoric surrounding children’s digital play-worlds to offer a compelling framework with which to understand the interwoven threads of technology, politics and culture that comprise children’s connected play. The result is well-composed, invaluable resource for anyone seeking to grasp the complex intermingling of gaming industry interests, and technological affordances with children’s virtual play practices, rights and creativity.” Daniel Thomas Cook, Professor of Childhood Studies, Rutgers University

"Grimes takes a deep and important dive into the politics embedded in online playgrounds. This outstanding book is a must-read for privacy scholars, child-rights activists, and anyone interested in understanding how tech companies shape children’s lives."

Valerie Steeves, Professor of Criminology, University of Ottawa