Research

Examining social networking among children and teens

iSchool Professor Sara Grimes’s background and expertise in children’s digital culture has led to a new, exciting collaboration with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center (JGCC), the research division of the Sesame Workshop, makers of Sesame Street.

In addition to the wealth of research the Sesame Workshop has generated over the past 4+ decades to inform its famous, international television programs—i.e. the many incarnations of Sesame Street—the organization currently produces cutting edge studies and leading reports on children’s adoption and use of new media technologies.

Along with Dr. Deborah Fields, a postdoctoral fellow in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on children’s virtual worlds and project-sharing sites, Prof. Grimes was invited to team up with the JGCC at Sesame Workshop to write a white paper examining social networking among children and teens.

The white paper will be a comprehensive review of existing academic literature and large scale reports on the social networking of kids of various ages, and aims to highlight gaps in the existing research in order to identify key areas for future research and development.

“We’re examining the introduction of social networking in the lives of increasingly younger children, as well as the recent boom in child-specific social networking sites and tools,” explains Prof. Grimes.

Dr. Grimes has had a working relationship with Sesame for a few years now and occasionally writes for their blog. She and Dr. Fields were approached to conduct the review because of their knowledge of children’s social media and focus on younger users—an age group not usually included in empirical studies of social networking practices.

The paper seeks to challenge traditional notions of what constitutes “social networking,” highlights some of the major issues and concerns around kids and social networking (many of which have design and policy implications), confronts assumptions that are made about kids and social networking, as well as highlights the importance of creativity and autonomy, rather than simply focus on traditional notions of educational potential.

Professor Grimes notes that although talking about social networking has been a big trend over the past few years, particularly when it comes to youth, very little is known about the social media practices of children under 12, and even less about those under 9. It has been assumed that their use of social networking is brand new and that the way they social network mimics that of older users.

Despite the lack of empirical data on younger users, Prof. Grimes points out, they are nonetheless often the focus of both celebratory and “moral panic” fuelled public discussions about the impact of social media on children’s lives. As the white paper will argue, there is a clear need for a more balanced discussion of these issues, particularly as they relate to younger children, and of the unique opportunities and challenges that might be associated with social media use among younger users. The paper calls for an informed public dialogue of children’s social networking based on empirical and critical analysis, rather than reactionary assumptions.

The project idea began in the fall of 2010 and developed over a series of teleconferences, interviews and writing sessions that took place during the spring and summer of 2011. A first draft was presented at a forum in New York City last month to a number of leading academic experts on social networking, child development and education, as well as various social media developers, designers, and policymakers.

Dr. Grimes hopes this presentation will open more collaborative work and research opportunities about younger age groups and their media ecology.

This project, commissioned by Cisco Systems Inc., was taken on by the JGCC at Sesame Workshop, who adopted a supporting role as Drs. Grimes and Fields conducted the review.

“The Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s approach to this collaboration was beyond excellent. They gave us the freedom to bring a critical, academic perspective to the project, and encouragement to pursue new lines of inquiry and connections that both Dr. Fields and I are convinced will lead to important new research programs in the years to come,” says Prof. Grimes, who also hopes her work will be useful to parents, teachers, and academics.

The final white paper will be published by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center in early 2012.

Tags: Feature Stories, Sara Grimes, Society