Call for papers – The Othered Child: Roma (and) Childhood between History and Antigypsyist Fantasy - Historisches Seminar

New Publication: Materializing Care – Children, 3D-Printed Prostheses, and Participatory Design – Dr. Melike Şahinol

L’Internationale des Républiques d’enfants (1939-1955)

La prochaine séance du séminaire AFRELOCE/ENS aura lieu samedi 8 mars, à 10h30, en visio-conférence. Nous recevrons Samuel Boussion, qui présentera ses recherches sur l’Internationale des Républiques d’enfants, entre 1939 et 1955. La conférence...

Childhood in a Time of Monsters | Notice Board

Understanding Children's Avatar Making in Social Online Games

Social online games like Minecraft and Roblox have become increasingly integral to children's daily lives. Our study explores how children aged 8 to 13 create and customize avatars in these virtual environments. Through semi-structured interviews and gameplay observations with 48 participants, we investigate the motivations behind children's avatar-making. Our findings show that children's avatar creation is motivated by self-representation, experimenting with alter ego identities, fulfilling social needs, and improving in-game performance. In addition, designed monetization strategies play a role in shaping children's avatars. We identify the ''wardrobe effect,'' where children create multiple avatars but typically use only one favorite consistently. We discuss the impact of cultural consumerism and how social games can support children's identity exploration while balancing self-expression and social conformity. This work contributes to understanding how avatar shapes children's identity growth in social online games.

CfP 20th ComFor-Annual Conference 2025 in Hamburg: „Childhood and Adolescence in/and Comics“ | ComFor