TikTok as a peer playground: Understanding how children in middle childhood use TikTok to shape their peer relations

Aug 22, 2026

Despite TikTok’s widespread popularity among children under 12, evidence on how they use the platform for social purposes remains limited. The study asks how children aged 8–12 shape peer relations through TikTok use. Longitudinal observations of children (n=84) in afterschool care show that they develop and apply digital, cultural, and social practices across online and offline settings, including connecting with weak ties, managing scrutiny, and using humoristic trends to gain status.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Research gap and study focus

Methods and longitudinal observations

Findings: peer relations practices on TikTok

Implications for social and digital development

Article TikTok as a peer playground: Understanding how children in middle childhood use TikTok to shape their peer relations Denise Mensonides University of Groningen, The Netherlands Anna Van Cauwenberge Ipsos European Public Affairs, Belgium Joëlle Swart University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands Marcel Broersma University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands new media & society 1–21 © The Author(s) 2025 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/14614448251362690](DOI: 10.1177/14614448251362690)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/14614448251362690)[journals.sagepub.com/home/nms](journals.sagepub.com/home/nms) Abstract Despite TikTok’s extensive popularity among children below the age of 12, there remains a significant gap in our understanding of how they use this platform for social purposes. We therefore ask how children between the ages of 8 and 12 shape their peer relations through their uses of TikTok. Through longitudinal observations of children (n = 84) in the context of afterschool care, we found that children use TikTok to develop and employ digital, cultural and social practices. Examples of such practices are referencing popular content to connect with weak tied peers, managing their online presence to prevent scrutinization in offline social contexts and using humoristic trendsand knowledge of TikTok to achieve social status and popularity. Employing these practices across on-and offline spaces can support and facilitate their development of Corresponding author: Denise Mensonides, Research Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, Oude Kijkin ‘t Jatstraat 26, 9712 EK Groningen, The Netherlands. Email: [d.mensonides@rug.nl](d.mensonides@rug.nl) social capital. Following these findings, we argue for initiatives and methodologies that support and explore children’s social and digital development. Keywords Afterschool childcare, children’s media use, digital literacy, ethnography, peer relationships, social capital, social media platforms, TikTok, youth culture Introduction The short-video platform TikTok has quickly become one of the most popular social media platforms among children around the world. On the platform, users can consume videos as well as upload videos, remix existing content and share or like content made by other users (Montag et al., 2021). Especially children below 12 are found to be active in producing content (Bucknell Bossen and Kottasz, 2020), driving sociality on the platform (Zulli and Zulli, 2020) and off the platform (e.g. by recreating dances with peers on the playground; De Leyn et al., 2022). While TikTok does not provide any insight in the number of users in this age group, a survey study carried out on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport indicates that 57% of children are using the platform in the Netherlands, where this study was conducted (Netwerk Mediawijsheid, 2021; Panteia, 2021) . Despite TikTok’s popularity, there remains a significant gap in our understanding of how children use the platform. Although some studies (e.g. De Leyn et al., 2022; Pomerantz and Field, 2021) have examined children’s use of TikTok, there still is limited understanding of how children actively engage with the platform as a space for social interaction. Existing literature often overlooks children’s perspectives, focussing primarily on adolescents (e.g. Zeng and Abidin, 2021) . This gap is especially pressing given growing global concern and policy responses – such as TikTok bans in India and proposed restrictions on social media platforms in Australia—that are often shaped by moral panic rather than empirical evidence (Robards et al., 2025) . In addition, prior studies indicate that children use TikTok to connect and interact with peers (Bucknell Bossen and Kottasz, 2020; De Leyn et al., 2022; Sarwatay et al., 2022)

FAQs

What research gap does the study address about children’s TikTok use?

The study targets the lack of understanding of how children actively use TikTok for social interaction and how those interactions shape peer relationships, especially from children’s perspectives rather than focusing mainly on adolescents.

How does the study investigate children’s peer relations via TikTok?

It uses longitudinal observations of children (n=84) in the context of afterschool care to examine how TikTok practices relate to peer relations in everyday settings.

What kinds of practices do children use TikTok to support peer relations?

Children use TikTok to reference popular content to connect with weak-tied peers, manage their online presence to avoid scrutiny in offline contexts, and use humoristic trends and TikTok knowledge to achieve social status and popularity.

Aug 22, 2026

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