[csaa-forum] Call for Papers: TikTok and Children Symposium (8 May 2023)

[Tama Leaver]

Call for Papers: TikTok and Children Symposium (8 May 2023)

The popularity of the short-video social media platform TikTok is prominent
across the globe with more than 1 billion monthly active users in over 150
countries (Doyle, 2023). Social media culture is being rapidly reshaped
around this relatively new platform through the creative lens of the
short-video format. Its creative and playful culture has particularly
attracted young demographics of social media users, especially children who
are below the age of 18 years. According to a US statistics report, 30% of
the users are assumed to be children under 19 years old (Doyle, 2023). A
recent UK study reveals that 16% of toddlers in the UK are introduced to
TikTok by their parents despite the app users having to be 13 or older to
sign up to the platform (Waterson, 2022). TikTok is now the most-used app
among children, outranking other social media platforms like YouTube and
Instagram (Perez, 2023).

For some young people TikTok serves as a playground where they make
connections with their peers (Bresnick, 2019). TikTok’s pedagogical
potential is also acknowledged for child education, such as language
learning (Karimah et al., 2022), and identity development (Sarwatay et al.,
2021). Children’s political voice is also actively formed and amplified on
the platform as children take up the platform space and discuss various
issues of social injustice, climate change, and electoral politics (Literat
& Kligler-Vilenchik, 2021).

However, children’s use of the platform, and how they are represented on
TikTok also gives rise to new challenges and concerns. Many parents are
concerned about children’s exposure to harmful content and potential risks
of children’s health (Collins, 2022). Data insecurity of the app has been
widely criticized, which is more serious for especially younger children
who are in need of  guidance as to how to protect their digital privacy in
the highly surveillant environment of social media (Sawers, 2022). Indeed,
several countries fined TikTok for mishandling children’s data without
parents’ consent, such as the UK (Sawers, 2022) and South Korea (BBC,
2020). Countries like India even banned the platform ostensibly to protect
children from potential sexual trafficking and graphic content
(Bursztynsky, 2020). Being aware of these concerns, TikTok announced a new
feature, “Family Safety Mode” that allows parents to manage their
children’s use of TikTok by linking their accounts to their children’s ones
(Brown, 2022). Nevertheless, TikTok is still an arena for debate on
children’s healthy and sound use of social media (Sawers, 2022).

In response to such potentials and pitfalls in children’s use of TikTok, we
will be holding a one-day online Symposium (on Zoom) to discuss crucial
issues to understanding children’s rights on TikTok and to examine their
wellbeing and safety on the platform. The Symposium will showcase the
emergent research on characteristics, climate, concerns, and chances of
children growing up with and on TikTok, and discuss these issues with the
industry and TikTok studies scholars. We seek to provide a meaningful
opportunity to think about balanced and practical approaches to ensure
children’s rights and agencies in the popularly emerging platform and
cultures, to make the best use of the platform cultures for child
development, while protecting children from possible risks of surveillance
and harmful content.

We invite submissions on themes that include, but are not limited to:

   -

   Child influencers on TikTok
   -

   Children and play culture on TikTok
   -

   Children and digital wellbeing on TikTok
   -

   Children and education on TikTok
   -

   Children and identity on TikTok
   -

   Children and creator culture on TikTok
   -

   Children and technologies on TikTok
   -

   Parenting and TikTok
   -

   Child policies and regulations and TikTok


HDRs, ECRs, and scholars in/or from the Global South are strongly
encouraged to apply. A selection of papers will also be considered for
inclusion in a Special Issue tentatively entitled “TikTok and Children”
that will be published in a top-ranked peer-reviewed journal in the field
of Media and Communication Studies.

For consideration in this Symposium, please submit abstracts (up to 250
words) on previously unpublished papers and a short bio (up to 100 words)
to TikTok Cultures Research Network (tiktokcultures at gmail.com).

Key Dates:

   -

   03 April 23: Abstracts and biographies due
   -

   12 April 2023: Notifications of acceptance
   -

   08 May 2023: TikTok and Children Symposium


We look forward to receiving your submissions! Please contact TikTok
Cultures Research Network (tiktokcultures at gmail.com) with any questions
about this event.

This Symposium is the seventh event organized by the TikTok Cultures
Research Network and its first collaboration with the Australian Research
Council of Centre for Excellence of the Digital Child. TCRN is an Asia
Pacific-based Network dedicated to understanding and developing qualitative
and cultural approaches to studying the impact of TikTok on society,
founded by Prof Crystal Abidin and supported by a network of Founding
Members in October 2020. This event is supported by the ARC Centre of
Excellence for Digital Child, Curtin’s Centre for Culture and Technology
(CCAT), and the Faculty of Humanities at Curtin University.


TikTok and Children team,
Prof. Crystal Abidin, Dr Jin Lee, and Prof. Tama Leaver

-- 
Professor Tama Leaver (he/him)

President, Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) http://aoir.org
Professor of Internet Studies

School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry (MCASI)
Faculty of Humanities
Curtin University
GPO Box U1987 Perth WA Australia 6845
Ph: (+61 8) 9266 1258
Email: t.leaver at curtin.edu.au
Web: www.tamaleaver.net
Twitter: @tamaleaver <https://twitter.com/tamaleaver>
CRICOS Provider Code: 00301J (WA)
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