Social Aspects of the Digitalization of Children’s Urban Mobility

Abstract

The penetration of technical devices into children’s communication with parents creates a problem: disentanglement. Disentanglement manifests itself in the increase of many technical mediators in social interactions that can affect family life significantly. This article presents a case study of child 'smart-mobility', which has emerged with the spread of smart wearables. Smart mobility means the transition from a transport system, supported by institutional infrastructure and vehicles, to individual mobility that is organized by a person with the help of his or her social links and special smartphone applications. The conclusions of this paper rely on the theoretical frameworks of science and technology studies (STS). The authors consider the formation of a socio-technical system that regulates the behaviour of children in cities. Drawing on the data from three Russian families, the authors consider the challenges of strengthening ethics in technological control for 'child-parent' relations and the habit of being 'under surveillance'. The use of smart wearables usage results in the reduction and even disappearance of independent mobility among children in contemporary cities. The authors analyse new trends in family control and introduce some ideas about the social effects of children’s mobility that is controlled with the help of special gadgets. The article is aimed at understanding the new aspects of life in 'smart cities'. The development of new technologies brings to the fore the question of children’s agency in the organization of their mobility. New technologies affect understanding of where the sphere of child’s responsibility for their mobility ends, and in which situations control should be delegated to parents or other observers and by what technical means.