Contesting the framing of digital risk: An analysis of Australian children’s experiences

Abstract

ABSTRACT Children’s social lives are mediated increasingly by digital tools, thereby making new modes of home-school-world relationships possible. In this context, children’s digital out-of-school social practices continue to be associated with risk. Children are construed as an “at risk” and vulnerable population by adults who frame children’s everyday digital social life with ambivalence. This framing is used to justify imposition of constraints in the present, with children’s digital engagement a key site of regulation. The study we report here problematises research that separates risk from children’s digital social participation. To challenge dominant views of children being vulnerable to risk, we use Actor Network Theory to provide a nuanced exposition of concepts of “digital risk” and agentic self, relevant to children’s digital social lives. From the findings of the present study, involving 62 10–11-year-old children in 3 Australian schools, we argue that “digital risk” framing of children’s social lives underplays children’s agency and voice in digital environments. Additionally, what is missing in the framing of digital risk is recognition that children utilise digital tools to ameliorate non-digital risk. In other words, risk is not only digital; and there is more to digital participation than risk.