KIDFLUENCING AND THE HYPERREAL CONSTRUCTION OF GIRLHOOD: A VISUAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS FROM A CHILDREN’S RIGHTS PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Abstract—Kidfluencing has emerged as a prominent social media practice in which children gain visibility, popularity, and economic value through content managed by adults, most often parents. This study examines how kidfluencing practices construct the visual representation of girlhood on social media and how these representations relate to children’s rights as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ( UNCRC). Using qualitative visual discourse analysis informed by Barthes’ semiotics and Mulvey’s gaze theory, the study analyses sixty Instagram posts shared in 2024 by two highly visible girl - focused kidfluencer accounts. The findings reveal that childhood is frequently framed as a hyper - real, gendered, and commercialised identity shaped by adult fashion aesthetics, algorithmic visibility, and marketing logics. Such representations normalise the erosion of children ’ s rights, particularly in relation to privacy, autonomy, protection from economic exploitation, and the principle of the best interests of the child . The study argues that kidfluencin g should not be understood merely as an outcome of individual parental choices but as a structural phenomenon situated at the intersection of platform economies, media ethics, and digital capitalism.