Performance Over Pedagogy: The Psychosocial Price of Child Influencing

Key findings from this study

• The study found that child influencers experience significant role conflict between online personas and authentic identities, leading to identity fragmentation and dependency on external validation.
• The researchers document that intensive content production directly disrupts academic performance while eroding genuine peer relationships and increasing social isolation.
• The authors propose that legal frameworks must establish children's right to prioritize cognitive and psychological development over commercial objectives.

Overview

This research investigates how child influencing undermines educational systems and child development through the commodification of childhood online. The study employs dramaturgical theory and examines digital child labor, exploitation, and psychosocial harm resulting from content production. The researchers sought to identify role conflicts between curated online personas and authentic identities, effects on self-perception and peer relationships, and threats to educational outcomes.

Methods and approach

Scenario-based interviews with twenty-two stakeholders including parents, teachers, and subject-matter experts structured the qualitative inquiry. The interviews explored stakeholder perceptions of commodification, identity fragmentation, academic disruption, and social consequences affecting child influencers. This approach enabled examination of how different constituencies interpret the phenomenon and its developmental implications.

Results

Stakeholders consistently reported that child influencers experience significant role conflict between their curated personas and real-life identities, resulting in identity fragmentation and emotional volatility. Dependency on external validation emerged as a central psychosocial consequence of sustained online performance. Intensive content production schedules directly disrupted academic performance among affected children. The research also documented erosion of genuine peer relationships, increased social isolation, and heightened anxiety levels among child influencers. Participants emphasized that commercial objectives frequently supersede cognitive and psychological development priorities.

Implications

The findings establish that current regulatory frameworks inadequately protect children engaged in influencer activities from labor exploitation and developmental harm. Educational institutions require structural support to address both the academic consequences of content production demands and the social-emotional needs of affected students. Legal protections must explicitly enshrine children's rights to educative environments prioritizing psychological development over commercial gain. Intervention strategies should target multiple systems: policy regulation of child influencing practices, institutional policies within schools, and support mechanisms for affected children and families.

Scope and limitations

This summary is based on the study abstract and available metadata. It does not include a full analysis of the complete paper, supplementary materials, or underlying datasets unless explicitly stated. Findings should be interpreted in the context of the original publication.