Digitised childhoods. Global changes in children’s play and work relations

Abstract

The global digitalisation of societies has major consequences for the lives of young people. As consumers and users of digital technologies, they are becoming involved in economic processes at an increasingly early age and seemingly becoming ‘adult’ earlier than the Western childhood model suggests. On online platforms, in the world of video games and in influencer marketing, play, leisure, work and business are mixing in new ways, raising the question of whether new forms of economic exploitation are emerging that have not been considered in the discourse on child labour to date. This article provides an insight into the diverse and hitherto little-studied digital fields of activity of young people and explores the contradictions between economic exploitation and social emancipation contained therein.