Abstract:
The world wide web is a virtual landscape connecting adults and children around the globe, converging in semi-segregated spaces where identity, social and cultural norms—like race, sexuality, gender, and childhood—are navigated and contested. Social media and other internet technologies are seen at once as nefarious net-scapes, corrosive to one’s development, and as necessary skills for the successful social and financial future of one’s child. How caregivers navigate and participate in this digital landscape, for themselves and for their dependents, are contested, convoluted and multifaceted. To understand how children and childhood are portrayed online, largely by adults, I conducted interviews with adult caregivers of children and content analyses of virtual spaces meant for various age groups. This study uncovered intersecting issues of inequality in virtual spaces, social and sexual identity, privacy, security, supervision, and human rights, with children objectified for economic, familial, and other (adult) social benefits.
