Self-Presentation Within Children’s Digital Spaces

Children’s social media use is often viewed by adults through a problematic lens and subsequently online safety agendas tend to focus on risk and harm (Duffy & Chan, New Media & Society, 21(1), 119–138, 2018). This chapter explores how children experience their social media use and how they make sense of their digital identities. The study documented views children as capable social actors and experts in their own lives, allowing situatedness of their experiences to be reported through their own narrative. A diverse sample of forty children in their final year of primary school took part in this study. Utilising focus groups with activities related to social media, allowed children’s own cultural practices to be explored. Findings suggest a lack of homogeneity in response to identity portrayal on social media, emphasising the differing subjectivities children encounter that may not be as distinctive as an online/offline binary in terms of how they portray their identities. A distinct gender divide emerged, where the use of filters and viewing idealised body shapes affected the way girls felt. Other pressures, such as seeking validation and external factors like celebrity cultures, further affected children’s sense of self. Though, many positive experiences were also noted, highlighting how social media was an important part of peer culture.