What does it mean to have rights online? And how do young people experience those rights in digital environments shaped by algorithms, internet culture, and the unpredictable circulation of content?

Together with Rotem Landesman, Harvard University and Katie Davis, University of Washington, Center for Digital Youth, I am exploring how teenagers aged 13–18 in Denmark and the United States understand and navigate their digital rights.

Rather than studying young people from the outside, we work with them as co-researchers. Combining youth advisory boards, co-design workshops, and a method we call think-aloud scrolling, we explore their everyday digital ecosystems through their own experiences and interpretations.

Our initial findings suggest that digital rights are not always experienced as clear-cut or fixed. Humour, play, discomfort, and harm can coexist, while the meaning of an online interaction may change as content circulates across audiences and contexts. Drawing on memetic sensemaking, we examine how young people navigate these ambiguities and negotiate their rights in practice.

The research is part of an ongoing transnational collaboration and was selected for publication in Children's Rights Under Pressure in a Digital World (2026), an international research anthology edited by Kim R. Sylwander, Gazal Shekhawat, and Sonia Livingstone. Published in connection with the International Communication Association (ICA) preconference in Cape Town, the anthology was organised by Digital Futures for Children, a joint research centre of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the 5Rights Foundation.

Our contribution, Transnational Teen Perspectives on Child Rights in Digital Ecosystems: A Youth-Centred Approach, presents initial findings and explores how youth-centred research can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of children's rights to both participation and protection in digital environments.