UC Irvine

Children spend a great deal of time in digital spaces in middle childhood and these digital environments are increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. But little is known about the digital experiences of children between the ages of 8 and 11, or how they might be making sense of algorithmically curated experiences across platforms (Odgers & Jensen, 2020; Radesky et al., 2023; Stoilova et al., 2021). Given the commercial and algorithmically driven digital contexts in which many children spend time, this mixed-methods dissertation seeks to highlight the voices of young digital media and technology users, specifically between the ages of 8 and 11 years old, as well document the opportunities young learners have to develop their skills and understandings about technology and new digital media in US public schools. This dissertation, and especially Study 1, is framed within a developmental affordances approach (Moreno & Uhls, 2019) to make connections between children’s unique developmental strengths and capacities in middle childhood and the opportunities and risks of technology use in the algorithmic age. The focus on children between the ages of 8 and 11 is meaningful because this is the time when most youth in the United States acquire their own device and use social media, despite platform age requirements. Study 1 draws on focus groups with socioeconomically, racially, and ethnically diverse children (N=34) ages 8 to 11 to explore smartphone ownership as a potentially meaningful rite of passage and how smartphone ownership aligns with developmental needs, highlighting children’s stories, feelings, and experiences of getting a smartphone in childhood. Study 2 draws on the same focus group data to document children’s sensemaking of data flows and algorithms in middle childhood, speaking to issues of algorithmic literacy, corporate surveillance, and critical media literacy. Study 3 uses survey data from a large sample of US educators (N=1,325) to examine patterns of instruction related to corporate surveillance, algorithmic literacy, and media literacy in the 2022-2023 academic year, as well as which educator-level predictors are associated with more instruction. Together, these studies have implications for supporting children’s development in the digital age across individual, social, and regulatory environments.