Parents’ understandings of social media algorithms in children’s lives in England: Misunderstandings, parked understandings, transactional understandings and proactive understandings amidst datafication

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, I ask how parents understand and make sense of their children’s relationships with social media algorithms. Drawing upon 30 think-aloud interviews with parents raising children aged 0 to 18 in England, in this paper, I pay attention to parents’ understandings of and consequent approaches to platform algorithms in relation to their children’s lives. I locate this work within user-centric research on people’s understandings of algorithms, and research about parents’ perspectives on data and datafication in relation to sharenting. Through my data, I draw out four modes – misunderstandings, parked understandings, transactional understandings and pro-active understandings. I suggest that parents’ often flawed understandings of their children’s myriad interfaces with algorithms deserve scrutiny not through a lens of blame or individualised parental (ir) responsibility but within cross-cutting contexts of parenting cultures and families’ diverse contextual resources and restraints. I conclude by highlighting attention to parents’ approaches to algorithms in children’s lives as critical to parents’ data and algorithm literacies. IMPACT SUMMARY Prior State of Knowledge: Parents in diverse contexts try to understand and support their children’s digital lives, and also often share content about their children on a variety of platforms. Prior research has shed significant light on the datafication of childhood. Novel Contributions: This study investigates parents’ diverse understandings of algorithms underlying social media platforms and the ways in which they approach algorithms in their children’s lives. Practical Implications: Parents’ knowledge about algorithms and datafication is uneven. Policymakers need to better support adult media literacies, including data and algorithm literacies. Schools’ communication to families and carers could also become key vehicles to raise awareness about datafication.