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

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) 
<mailto:(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) 
<mailto:(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


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