Research

Current Research

Children's technology engagement and digital rights

As children's device use begins at ever younger ages, understanding kids' technology engagement and parenting practices is vital. In so doing, we can also make a clearer case for what constitutes children's digital rights and how they should be honoured by parents, policymakers, tech platforms, schools and content creators, among others.

I am working with Dr Andrew Yee of Singapore University of Technology and Design (PI) and Dr Nie Youyan of the National Institute of Education, We are studying screentime of preschoolers in Singapore to understand what constitutes high- versus low-quality media consumption among children aged 2-5 and to develop a psychometrically validated parent-report quality of media use questionnaire for researchers.

I am also co-authoring with Dr Iris Wang Yang Digital Parenting Burdens in China: Navigating the Grind of Parent Chats and Homework Apps on how Chinese parents embrace digital technology in all aspects of daily life while investing heavily in their children's academic performance. Even as innovations such as parent chats and homework apps are great forms of support, they also introduce tensions and challenges for parents. The book is based on our interviews with parents in Hangzhou and Beijing, probing into their use of technology during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Countering online harms with AI ethics frameworks

As generative AI unleashes the firehose of illegal or harmful content and manipulation-at-scale, online harms will become more voluminous and egregious, exacerbating our ongoing challenges with Internet safety.

I have undertaken extensive public education work with the Alliance for Action to Tackle Online Harms against Women and Girls, and with the Media Literacy Council. I am currently conducting a comparative analysis of trust and safety policies and programmes of different technology platforms to identify which are most effective in addressing this growing scourge and what best practices can be distilled. Separately, I am also reviewing and benchmarking the online safety regulations in Asia.

Notably, by using the framework of fairness, accountability, transparency, explicability and beneficence, I seek to distil best practices for policymakers and tech companies to make the online environment safer, more welcoming and more edifying.

Digitalisation and the future of work

How well equipped are workers to cope with the changes wrought by digitalisation and automation, be they good or ill? My research on the future of work delves into the skills competency and digital literacy challenges workers encounter, and the support programmes they receive from government and employers.

Our Digital Workplace 2.0 study spanned Humanities, Social Sciences and Engineering, bringing together an interdisciplinary team of ten researchers to investigate how digital disruption might impact and change Singapore’s economy and society in key industry sectors, in order to provide actionable recommendations for public policy-making and organisations to enhance the resilience of their workers in the face of digital disruption. It was supported by a $2.1 m Social Science Research Council grant. Work is ongoing on analysing and publishing the findings from this study.

Research Grant Funding

2021-2024

2018-2021

2017-2020

NIE Office of Education Research Education Research Funding Programme

Social Science Research Council

$244,000

$2,100,000

$8,500,000

Assessing and measuring the quality of screen time for Singaporean preschoolers: A mixed-method study (Co-Principal Investigator)

Tackling digital disruption: Industry transformations and workforce resilience (Principal Investigator)

Building Human Capacity in Singapore’s Population: Testing Innovations in Human Development (Co-Principal Investigator)

2015-2017

Media Development Authority

$99,701

Excessive Smartphone Use: Effects of Parenting Style, Impact on Parent-adolescent Relationship and Academic Performance among Singaporean Adolescents (Principal Investigator)

2015-2017

NUS Centre for Family and Population Research

$9,462.50

Tablet use of pre-schoolers: Family dynamics, parenting practices and mediation strategies (Principal Investigator)

2014-2015

Korean National Research Foundation Joint Research Program

$72,920.65

Vietnamese Marriage Migrants' use of Mediated Communication to Negotiate Stigma and Social Capital: A Cross-Cultural Comparison with Vietnamese Marriage Migrants in Singapore (Co-Principal Investigator)

2010-2013

Ministry of Family Services Family Research Fund

$100,000

Parental Perceptions and Mediation of Computer Gaming in Singapore (Principal Investigator)

2010-2011

Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 1

$15,510

Workshop on “The Smartphone in Asia: Its Impact and Development Trajectory in a Hyperconnected Region” (Principal Convenor)

2010-2011

FASS Staff Research Support Scheme

$8,000

The use of media and technology
by Singaporean juvenile offenders and at-risk youths (Principal Investigator)

2009 -2010

Asia-Europe Foundation

$25,000

Workshop on “Youths and New Media in Asia and Europe” (Principal Convenor)

2006-2008

ASEAN Universities Network Korean Association of Southeast Asian Studies

$8,000

Domestication of ICTs by middle-class families in South Korea (Principal Investigator)

2006-2007

Intellectual Property Academy of Singapore

$100,000

New media piracy and perceptions of intellectual property (Principal Investigator)

2003-2006

National University of Singapore

$80,000

Consumers' online privacy perceptions (Co-Principal Investigator)