Children, consent, and control in Persian social media

Sabbar, Shaho

doi:10.22059/jcss.2025.406842.1207

Children, consent, and control in Persian social media

Document Type : Original article

Author

Shaho Sabbar

Department of Iranian Studies, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

10.22059/jcss.2025.406842.1207

Abstract

Background: Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X have redefined the norms of sociality, identity performance, and participation in the public sphere.
Aims: This study examines how Persian-language users on X negotiate the visibility of children in online spaces through affective discourse and vernacular governance.
Methodology: Analyzing 2,392 posts, we identify seven thematic formations—ranging from family blogging and sharenting to screenshot-based mockery, celebrity child cultures, and rights-based critiques. Using a hybrid methodological approach combining high-recall data retrieval, supervised multi-label topic modeling, and sentiment–intensity analysis, we map how practices like quote-tweeting and screenshotting structure public debates around parental branding, childhood agency, privacy, and consent. Central to this ecosystem is the culturally specific figure of “Arat’s father”, a discursive shorthand for the commodification of childhood under platform economies.
Findings: The findings reveal a layered affective landscape where humor, outrage, and pedagogical neutrality coexist, enabling users to police age norms and negotiate ethical boundaries in real time.
Conclusion: This study reveals how ordinary users in Iran and Persian-speaking contexts regulate childhood visibility through platform affordances, emotional repertoires, and normative claims. It also proposes a reproducible pipeline for analyzing culturally specific digital publics with methodological transparency and ethical sensitivity.

Keywords

digital rights

platformized childhood

Persian social media

sharenting

vernacular governance

Subjects

humanities & social sciences

Main Object: Humanities & Social Sciences

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