ABOUT US

 

Backgrounder

Digital games are more popular than ever among children of increasingly younger ages. Games appear in a variety of children’s spaces and are played on many devices. Gaming provides kids with exciting ways to connect, play, create, and learn. However, it also introduces urgent new questions relating to children’s rights (including privacy rights), responsibilities, and potential vulnerabilities as they enter into uncharted, and largely unregulated, territories. From loot boxes and in-game harassment, to commercial surveillance and disinformation, it’s increasingly hard to know what  kids will encounter when they start playing a new game, and how to make sure their rights and best interests are being supported.

In Canada, the UK, and the US there is rising interest among the public, game industry, and policymakers in revisiting how children’s games are regulated, designed, and classified. The CAGD project seeks to understand: the emergence of “age appropriate design” as a key framework for protecting children’s privacy and other rights in the digital environment; children’s own thoughts and experiences of how games are rated, regulated, and designed “for” them; and how children’s game developers are responding to the shifting regulatory and social landscape as they make games for children.

 

Who We Are

Sara Grimes

Dr. Sara M. Grimes is the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy, Full Professor in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies, and the founding Director of the Kids Play Tech Lab at McGill University in Canada. She is the Principal Investigator of the CAGD project. She is also an expert in children’s game design and policy research and has published numerous books and articles in the field, including Digital Playgrounds: The Hidden Politics of Children’s Online Play Spaces, Virtual Worlds, and Connected Games (University of Toronto Press, 2021). She is the main lead and contact for the CAGD project, and the person to talk to about age-appropriate design in Canada and the US, and regarding our focus groups and interviews with Canadian children and children’s game devs. Her favourite game is Dark Souls.

Darshana Jayemanne

Dr. Darshana Jayemanne is a Lecturer in the School of Design and Informatics, Division of Games and Arts, at Abertay University in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. He has conducted many studies involving children, teens, games and other media. He is the author of Performativity in Art, Literature and Videogames (Palgrave MacMillan 2017), and Co-Investigator of the AHRC/ESPRC-supported “Reality Remix” project on the Next Generation of Immersive Experiences. Darshana designed the CAGD methodology and will lead industry analysis in the UK, as well as our cross-cultural comparison.

Seth Giddings

Dr. Seth Giddings is an Associate Professor of Digital Culture and Design at the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton in Southampton, United Kingdom. His research ranges from children’s media culture to game studies to AI and robotics and his exemplary background in digital games research has led to countless publications, including Gameworlds: Virtual Media and Children’s Everyday Play (Bloomsbury, 2016) and Toy Theory: Technology and Imagination in Play (MIT Press, 2024). Seth’s leadership and insights into children’s play and gaming are invaluable assets to the theoretical framework used in this project.

Bronwyn Swerdfager

Bronwyn Swerdfager is a PhD student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario. Her previous research includes talking to children about how they understand their digital devices. Bronwyn’s interest in facilitating children’s participation in society led her to become a researcher for the CAGD project. Her favourite video game is Super Mario 64 because it’s the first game she learnt to play and brings up heaps of fun memories of discovering the childhood joy of gaming with her brother.

Riley McNair

Riley is a PhD student in the Faculty of Information at The University of Toronto, where she researches the impacts of datafication processes on children’s rights and wellbeing. Her research interests are motivated by her professional experiences working at child welfare charities and non-profits in the UK. Riley was drawn to the CAGD project because of its commitment to preserving children’s right to play. Her all-time favourite games are from the Story of Seasons series.

Alan Bui

Alan Bui is a researcher for the CAGD project and also serves as a project manager. His background includes research in age appropriateness in movies and video games as well as effective practices in children’s books. His interest in children’s media and knowledge mobilization brought him to the CAGD project. Alan is also an avid gamer and his favourite games include Kingdom Hearts and Pokemon.

Hanine El Mir

Hanine is a PhD student in the department of Communication Studies at Concordia University, looking at food security within fishing mini-games. As a game designer, Hanine works for fun and plays for a living. She is also a previous coordinator of TAG – the Technoculture, Art and Games Research Centre (2023-2024), as well as a coordinator of Pixelles’ Make Games Program (2022-Present). Her favourite games include Dicey Dungeons and Pokémon Emerald.

Kenji Toyooka

Born in Ottawa, Canada to Japanese immigrants, Kenji Toyooka is a web developer, graphic designer and illustrator who has been in business for over 20 years in the overlapping worlds of application development, digital media and visual arts. A software programmer by training and a multi-media artist at heart, his varied skill set enables him to work on a wide variety of projects, including web development, mobile game design, branding, marketing campaigns, product packaging, digital art and painting. His list of clients have spanned the North American continent and include corporations, non-profit organizations, governmental agencies, music festivals, wine/spirits companies and independent artists.