ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how children are constructed as consumers by a range of stakeholders, including marketers, campaigners, and academics from different disciplines. Given the increase in children's digital activities on personal electronic devices as well as more sophisticated forms of data collection and analysis by online companies, there are growing concerns about datafication and new forms of marketing that are targeting children more directly. The chapter reveals the ways research and debates position children in largely polarized ways, as passive victims of marketing or as active and “empowered” consumers. The chapter explores how these debates play out in academic research concerning media effects and consumer socialization theories and includes critiques of these traditions. The chapter presents alternative approaches to studying children as consumers, by taking account of the social contexts of their practices. Specifically, the chapter describes research that employs theories from Cultural Studies, actor-network theory, and the anthropology of consumer culture. The chapter argues for more nuanced approaches which move beyond polarized constructions of children as consumers.
