Ethical Digital Futures is a research group focused on creating sustainable digital futures for individuals, families and communities, locally and globally. Our research covers a broad spectrum of topics including digital parenting, post-digital urban futures, perspectives of advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), intimate communications, online sexual content, children and young people’s digital rights, democracy and social media, digital artforms and the impact of evolving technologies.
Ethical Digital Futures provides rigorous, ethically grounded research and thoughtful guidance to support parents, communities and community groups, educators, policymakers, industry groups, society, and young people in navigating the social, cultural, and moral complexities of digital life. Through critical inquiry, Ethical Digital Futures fosters informed decision-making, responsible practice, and inclusive digital futures.
Ethical Digital Futures’ foci align with Australia’s current research priorities, including supporting healthy and thriving communities, and building a secure and resilient nation, as well as the School of Arts and Humanities’ priorities around care, inclusion, global transformation and digital futures.
As human engagement and communication are increasingly occurring online, there is a strong need for evidence-based research that uses ethical approaches, recognising that digital technologies raise ongoing and interconnected ethical considerations around power, access, and control. Researchers within Ethical Digital Futures use a variety of methodologies including qualitative research, mixed-methods, art-based methodologies, co-design, and other participatory research approaches.
Given humans’ endeavours and communication are now often mediated and informed by the digital, we research and promote an ethical approach, knowing that the power and ownership of much digital technology is concentrated in the hands of the elite and profit/power-driven few.
Our Vision is for an ethical digital future, and our research is conducted within this framework as we work towards this ambitious goal.
Research areas:
Children’s digital rights
Digital humanities
Families’ use of digital and social media
Teens and digital porn, sex education
Digital intimacy
Social media influencers and influence
Democracy and social media
Digital artforms
AI and its impact on creative industries, including journalism, public relations, media and communication.
Youth-led creative methods
Post-digital urban futures
PhD opportunities
Researchers in Ethical Digital Futures welcome expressions of interest from prospective PhD candidates interested in pursuing impact-driven research into digital participation and its ethical implications in communities. Our research includes and crosses the fields of Media, Communication, Cultural Studies, Public Relations, Digital Humanities, Political Communication, Internet Studies, Sexology, Social Media, and Creative Writing.
If you are interested in applying, please contact catherine.archer@ecu.edu.au for details on PhD opportunities, funding, and supervision.
Projects
Working with teenagers to co-design a porn literacy program that mitigates potential harm, Australian Research Council, Linkage Project Round 1 (LP25 R1), 2026 ‑ 2028, $413,593. CIs: Lelia Green, Christopher Kueh, Giselle Woodley. PI: Siobhan Healy-Cullen.
Teen-informed strategies to counter sexual image abuse and sextortion, Australian Research Council, Discovery Projects (DP25), 2025 ‑ 2027, $496,013. CIs: Lelia Green, Debra Dudek. PI: Jessica Ringrose.
Advancing Digital Innovation in the Australian Live Performance Sector, Australian Research Council, Linkage Round 1 (LP24 R1), 2025 ‑ 2028, $15,790.
ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, Australian Research Council, Grant - Centres of Excellence (CEE126), 2021 ‑ 2027, $4,744,116.
ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child - Exploring Australian children's and parents' attitudes and engagement with digital play through a gendered lens, Australian Research Council, Grant - Centres of Excellence (CEE126), 2026 ‑ 2027, $32,174. CIs: Lelia Green, Giselle Woodley, Sian Tomkinson, Amanda Keddie.
Growing up in a digital word: A longitudinal study of teens, pornography and sources of sexual information, Edith Cowan University, Early-Mid Career Researcher Grant Scheme 2026 (Stream 1), 2026 ‑ 2027, $39,996. CI: Giselle Woodley.
Transforming the News: Assessing the Impact of Generative AI on Journalism Practices and News Production, Edith Cowan University, Early-Mid Career Researcher Grant Scheme 2025 (Stream 2), 2025 - 2026, $31,010. CI: Steinar Ellingsen
Bridging the gap between young people and politics: Student developed strategies for enhancing deliberative democracy, Edith Cowan University, Early-Mid Career Researcher Grant Scheme 2025 (Stream 1), 2025 - 2026, $39,887. CI: Claire Fitzpatrick
The evolution of social media influencers and their impact on parenting and society, Edith Cowan University, Early-Mid Career Researcher Grant Scheme 2026 (Stream 2), 2026 - 2027, $28,942. CI: Catherine Archer
Researchers
Publications
- Fitzpatrick, C., Sengul, K. (2026). Media and Democracy. Australian Politics and Policy Open Textbook (201-229). Sydney University Press. https://doi.org/10.30722/sup.9781743329542
- Glitsos, L. (2026). The monstrous-digital: Data necropolitics, social media, and the assassination of Brian Thompson. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494251403874
- Archer, C., Delmo, KM. (2025). Kidfluencers, public relations and human rights: An exploration of the impact on the human rights of children as social media influencers within public relations and promotional practice. Public Relations Inquiry, 14(3), 287-306. https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X251351364
- De Possesse, S., Yecies, B., Ellingsen, S., Turnbull, S. (2025). Beyond Gatekeeping: Web Series as Entrepreneurial Emancipation in the Contemporary Streaming Era. Television and New Media, 2025(Article in Press). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476425139608
- Glitsos, L. (2025). Living in Scroll Land: Anxiety and the Experience of Slop and Doom. M/C Journal, 28(5). https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.3191
- Langton, K., Jayakumar, E., See, H., Archer, C., Woodley, G. (2025). Balancing digital presents and futures: understanding first-time parents’ practices, plans, and perceptions of ‘quality’ and risk in young children’s digital engagements. Media International Australia, 2025 (Article in press). https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X251330298
- Woodley, G., Williams, M. (2025). Automating Intimacy? Experiencing AI as a Sex and Relationships Educator. M/C Journal, 28(5). https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.3229
- Woodley, G., See, H., O'Neill, B., Green, L., Staksrud, E., Haskell-Dowland, P. (2025). Australian Teen Voices on Age Verification and Age Assurance Measures. Policy & Internet, 17(4), Article number e70019. https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.70019
- Arthur, Paul Longley, and Lydia Hearn. (2024). Open Scholarship in the Humanities. London: Bloomsbury. https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/open-scholarship-in-the-humanities-9781350232273/. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350232303
- Hardley, J., Richardson, I. (2024). Embodied Excess: Interpreting Haptic Mobile Media Practices. Data Excess in Digital Media Research (87-104). Emerald. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80455-944-420241007
Media links
Selected media coverage from our group’s researchers.
https://theconversation.com/porn-not-inherently-harmful-says-first-inquiry-of-its-kind-in-australia-268105
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/theconversationhour/the-conversation-hour/104893020
https://thewest.com.au/news/health/australian-families-are-making-big-money-from-posting-their-children-on-social-media-but-at-what-cost-c-18535343
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-nose-reddit-users-image-struggles.html
https://theconversation.com/should-youtube-be-included-in-australias-social-media-ban-for-kids-under-16-we-asked-5-experts-262046
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/01/how-to-support-your-child-through-under-16s-social-media-ban-australia
https://theconversation.com/i-started-walking-the-long-way-many-young-women-first-experience-street-harassment-in-their-school-uniforms-202718
