Please note: this profile is now part of an archived conference and information may be outdated.
Shirley Dent
Institute of Ideas
Associate Fellow

Shirley Dent is an Associate Fellow of the Institute of Ideas, where she was formerly Communications Director. She worked as Head of Communications and Campaigns Advisor for the UK’s phone-paid regulator, where she led work on children and connected devices such as smartphones. Shirley recently set up Spark Mobile – an organisation that uses mobile and digital technology to connect the best ideas with the brightest people, whoever and wherever they are. Her PhD was on William Blake and she has written widely on the arts and technology.
Shirley's Sessions
It Takes a Village… A Digital One…
CMC session producer Dr Shirley Dent reflects on Out of the Mouths of Babes: Free Expression, Children and 21st Century Media - the session she produced for CMC as part of CMC's collaboration with Battle of Ideas - two days of high-level, thought-provoking, public debate organised by the Institute of Ideas annually. To misquote…
Out of the Mouths of Babes - PREVIEW
Should access to social media be moderated or regulated for children? Session Producer Shirley Dent invites you to this session on Friday morning in Showroom Cinema 3: It’s official. Facebook still has – in the words of Stuart Dredge – BFF status with teens. According to the Forrester survey of…
Out of the Mouths of Babes: Free Expression, Children and 21st-century Media
As children form friendships and express themselves online, how should social and children’s media help kids and teens navigate digital perils as well as pleasures?