Sara M. Grimes is an associate professor in the Faculty of Information and director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute at the University of Toronto.

Introduction

Digitizing Playgrounds and Technologizing Play
What This Book Is About
Why Looking Back Helps Us Move Forward
Building a Children’s Technology Studies Framework
Chapter Overview

1. The Importance of Digital Play

Conflicting Views of Children’s Play
Conflicting Views of Mediated Play
Licensed Toys and Media Supersystems
Digital Game Controversies and Dichotomies
Dangerous Games and Risky Gamers
Games for "Good" Girls
Bad Game(r)s, Good Game(r)s
Moving Forward
Looking at "Stuff" and Structures
Resituating Children’s Play
Conclusion

2. Small Worlds and Walled Gardens

A Brief History of Children’s Digital Playgrounds
Online Games: Portals, Arcades, and Environments, 2003-2005
Neopets
The Virtual World Boom, 2005-2008
Design Trends and Disparities
Beyond the Computer Screen
Web-Enabled Consoles
Connected Games Go Mobile
Toys-to-Life and Cross-Platform Games
Conclusion

3. Commercializing Play(grounds)

Revisiting Supersystems and Structures
Texts and Contexts
Affordances and Design Limitations
Commercializing Gameplay
The Velvet Rope
Cross-Promotion and Branding
Immersive Third-Party Advertising
Brand Ambassadors
When Stories, Designs, and Commercial Priorities Align
Conclusion

4. From Rules of Play to Censorship

The Primacy of Rules in Digital Games
Design(ed) Rules
Written Rules, Rulebooks, and Codes of Conduct
Who Follows the Rules Anyway?
Why Breaking Rules Is Important
Negotiating Encoded Rules
Children Bending, but Not Breaking, the Rules
Ice Goths and BarbieBoys
Flash Mobs and Copycats
Playing in the Margins of Manoeuvre
Conclusion

5. Safety First, Privacy Later

Children’s Data and Privacy
The COPPA Rule Revised
Reframing Privacy Protections as Safety Mechanisms
Privacy Policies
"Safety" by Design
Safety as a Key Selling Point
Freedom of Expression as a Collateral Cost of Safety
Secret Spaces and "Unsafe" Places
Unsafe and Risky Play
Conclusion

6. Playing as Making and Creating

Playing and Making Digital Games
Children’s Literacy, Agency, and Cultural Rights
Terms of Service, Terms of Play
Who Owns Children’s Content in Digital Playgrounds?
New Creative Opportunities, Same Old Terms
User Rights in Minecraft
Fandom and Fair Use as Consumer Practice
Conclusion

7. The Politics of Children’s Digital Play

Where We Are, and How We Got Here
The (Four) Problems with Digital Playgrounds
Privacy, Secrets, and Selfhood
Censorship and Freedom of Expression
Ownership, Authorship, and Copyright
Commercial Content and Control
The Digital Playground as Public Sphere

Bibliography