The effectiveness of digital mapping to enable hard-to-reach children to co-design, with the local authority, a Children Friendly City (UNESCO) in a disadvantaged community in Australia

Child Friendly City Principles (CFCP) aim to increase children's life chances, health and well-being (UNESCO https://childfriendlycities.org/guiding-principals/). Seventy-five children, 7-12 years from schools in a disadvantaged area of Sydney, Australia created a digital map to define what CFCP means for them in their community context. Both natural and built environments were a source of interaction and connection. The children were provided with art materials to create whatever they wanted to express their positive experiences in their local community. They were then supported to upload images of their creative work onto a digital map of their local area, pinpointing each location of their choice. The children used the digital map to explain what is important for them in their municipality and to advocate for social justice. Spaces and places selected were explained by the children when situating them on the digital map in terms of their significance for their respect, autonomy, identifications, safety, social and cultural meanings as well as community engagement. Using their digital map, the children shared power and responsibility with local authority decision makers to co-design a safe, healthy environment aligned with how children chose to localise CFCP. The digital map provides a sustainable platform on which more social and political links can be built by children. The implications of using digital mapping as a tool for hard-to-reach children, in partnership with local authority, to engage directly in place-based change, affords an opportunity for critical place-making, that is, grounded in children's understandings of the often invisible socio-spatial processes underpinning and reproducing social differences.