“It’s Like How Mom Cooks for You, Tell Her Nothing You Only Get Chicken Soup.”: Understanding Children’s Perception of Datafication Online in China

Abstract

Datafication, the process where users’ actions online are pervasively recorded, tracked, aggregated, analysed, and exploited by online services in multiple ways, is becoming increasingly common today. However, we know little about how children, especially non-Western children, perceive such practices. Through one-to-one semi-structured interviews with 36 children aged 11–14 from Chinese middle schools, we examined how Chinese children perceive datafication practices. We identified three knowledge gaps in children’s current perceptions of datafication practices online, including their lack of recognition of (i) their data ownership, (ii) data being transmitted across platforms, and (iii) datafication could go beyond video recommendation and include inferences and profiling of their personal aspects. Through contextualising these observations within the Chinese context and its unique online ecosystem, we identified cultural traits in Chinese children’s perceptions of datafication. We drew on education theories to discuss how to support the future digital literacy development and design online platforms for Chinese children.