The Disclosure, Disconnect, and Digital Sexploitation of Tween Girls' Aspirational YouTube Videos

Abstract

Does YouTube normalize the unintended sexploitation of tween Black girls' musical play in user-generated content (UGC)? A review of girlhood studies, online sexploitation, social media, and intersectionality contributes to a case study of over 600 YouTube twerking videos uploaded over a six-year period (2008–2014). Utilizing Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA), three main findings point to the normalization of online sexploitation relative to Black girls' user-generated content: 1) the disclosure of personal-identifying information; 2) disconnects between culture and age-restricted guidelines; and 3) the monetization of music in UGC.