How Children Make Sense of their World

Examining children’s perspectives about online risks provides an understanding of risk that pertains to those who are directly influenced and affected by such risks. Social representations theory was developed to explain how people make sense of new ideas and new information. The theory is very useful in understanding how different structures help shape sense-making of online risks, particularly for children. Markovà (2017) explains that children’s representations relate to their lived experiences. They might not have an adults’ lived experiences, but they live in a world of existing social representations. They adopt these representations to help them understand the world around them. However, their social representations are not identical to adults’, as the social representations form upon the experiences of a particular group in relation to the object. According to Duveen (1996) children acquire social representations as part of their development.

They adopt these representations to help them understand the world around them.

Our research shows that children understand that going online will mean encountering online risks. On one hand this makes children vigilant, but on the other hand, some children become afraid. Children can easily understand those risks with tangible effects or those they experienced. Children fill in the gaps about online risks they do not understand through anchoring and objectifying processes linked to their peers’ experiences, adults’ discourse and the media.  Children also seem to have self-serving biases which can be gauged in the way they position their peers as being more vulnerable. These biases could be giving children a sense of invulnerability and influencing the risks they take online (Farrugia, 2020).

Enable intervention using aspects that form children’s sense-making

Identifying children’s social representations of an object informs us about what influences and shapes their perceptions of this object. This enables targeted responses and interventions based on the relevant aspects that form children’s sense-making. Our research can give you invaluable insights on children’s sense-making. Get in touch to discuss how we can help you.