Sociological analysis of the phenomenon of virtual working children and the social contexts of its formation

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD student in Sociology - Social Issues of Iran, Science and Research Unit, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Research Unit, Islamic Azad University of Tehran, Ira

3 Associate Professor of Sociology, Central Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The new form of exploitation and children's work by embracing social networks, especially Instagram, has created a new generation of virtual children who are called "Instagram workers" Stylishly dressed working children who are engaged in virtual business in the virtual space pages like Instagram. Therefore, the main goal of this research is to put the social contexts of the formation and emergence of this phenomenon in the society under sociological analysis.The Grounded research method was used in this research and the studied community was selected through purposeful sampling. In fact, there are parents of children who, as their employers, manage their work-advertisement activities on the Instagram virtual network.20 parents answered the researcher's questions through semi-structured in-depth interviews. The activities and works done by children on the Instagram social network are classified into three categories: a) advertising works, b) performance works and c) service works The data of this research was extracted after the three stages of open, axial and selective coding, in total 255 concepts, 22 sub-categories and 4 main categories, The main categories are: "virtual bio-business, virtual show child, reconstruction of parent's identity and the ultimate desirability of the parent" and finally by combining The obtained models, the core category of "virtual slave child" was introduced. Employer parents who do virtual life-business in social networks, turn their child into a decorative-show object and income-generating tool. The slave child of the show whose central theme is continuously inflated is exposed to the virtual buying and selling of users, followers and buyers.Also, in the typology resulting from the results of this research, three types of children were analyzed: precocious or piggy bank children, showcase or decorative children, and halo children, each of these children can be identified based on the nature of the activity and work done on Instagram

Keywords

References

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Journal of Social Problems of Iran
Volume 16, Issue 2
May 2026
Pages 189-209

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