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The study examines the role of children as producers, distributors, and consumers in the digital realm. Additionally, it also explores class and gender identities they create and perform in this modality. We focus on young female YouTubers(8–11 years old) from Peru, a country that has experienced significant economic expansion in the first decades of the 21st century. The study analyzes 40 videos created by five girl YouTubers. The discussion addresses the economic role children perform in the digital economy as they produce value through content creation, distribute goods, and engage in globalized consumption. The paper also discusses the ways girls display gender and class identities in their products and their consumption patterns. Throughout the analysis, we use the key concept of children’s agency; the discussion reveals both the concept’s reach and limitations in the context of consumer culture, gender regimes, and neoliberal policies.

The popularity of multiplayer online videogames (MOVs) in the lives of young people has become a recurrent area of interest for parents and researchers. The use of these platforms has generated concerns regarding the potential negative effects on children’s personal and social development. Additionally, the ways in which players socialize through these games has raised questions concerning what are regarded as the most effective approaches to promote a constructive articulation of virtual and physical worlds. Fortnite, was created by Epic Games in 2017. It can be characterized as a social survival gaming experience and has the most remarkable use on a worldwide scale. The study reported here is a qualitative case study that explores the social dimension of the use of Fortnite and how it impacts on children’s and their parents’ perceptions regarding its use. A total of 82 in-depth interviews were conducted in 2019 with Argentinian and Chilean children between 9 and 18 years of age and their parents. Findings reveal that parents and children have diverging perspectives regarding the social dimension of the game’s immersive experience. The topic developed in this article is of particular relevance to parents and researchers given the current events and widescale use of online platforms due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Becoming a critical user of media is a premise for citizenship in contemporary times. The use of critical thinking skills in mediatized scenarios demands developing the ability to interact with media, not only in being able to use devices, but also for understanding their socio-cultural effects. Our recent pandemic and political circumstances have raised our levels of awareness about fake news and biased media opinions. Here, I contend that we need to consider three basic arguments that should be taken into account when thinking about media literacy: Access to the internet constitutes a human right, though that is not enough, as we must develop critical media literacy skills as well; media policies should focus on the empowerment of citizens; and media literacy education policies must address the initial and continued professional learning of teachers to ensure its success.

This article looks at the social and cultural contexts of children’s experiences of illness, through a particular focus on the context of the Global South and the role of the social media platform YouTube in children’s culture. It takes a socio-constructivist approach to discuss the case of CarecaTV(BaldTV), a Brazilian YouTube channel with more than one million followers created by Lorena Reginato at the age of 12 when she was recovering from brain cancer. In CarecaTV, cancer subjectivity co-exists with and is expressed through digital commercialization. On the one hand, through this process, Lorena Reginato gains agency as she offers an inspirational and credible first-person testimony about cancer during childhood and becomes an emerging cancer activist. On the other, she uses entrepreneurship strategies associated with the digital influencer model of YouTube to promote herself as a (cancer) micro-celebrity, taking the lead in a youthful and playful culture.

This paper focuses on out of school learning during early childhood transitions through case studies of young children in two different rural communities in Peru. It shows that for young children, increasing participation in their social worlds is marked not only through specific rites, but also through a more subtle process that involves a progressive change in their roles and responsibilities within their households. This transition involves the learning of practical and social skills, develops a sense of identity, belonging and responsibility, and makes children feel valuable members of their families and communities. The process takes place at the same time as young children start formal schooling, but is often ignored by school itself. The paper contributes to current discussions on out-of-school learning and child work at specific life-course moments such as the transition to middle childhood, contributing empirical material as well in order to understand the transition itself.

Washington--Debate over the high administrative cost of American health care reignited last month after the General Accounting Office released its report on Canadian health care. Reactions to the report's favorable […]