Behind the Unbox: Conceptual and Netnography Explorations of the Tensions and Implications for Child Toy Unboxers

Abstract

Child toy unboxers are a popular and unique type of child influencer who unboxes and plays with toys for their online viewers. Sponsored child toy unboxing content embodies play and strategic promotion, suggesting that child toy unboxers are exposed to nuanced experiences that are different to the traditional form of child stars. Current research is yet to explore the nuances of child toy unboxing and its implications on the child influencer also considering child influencer parents and advertisers who make up the ecosystem of the sponsored toy unboxing world. This thesis aims to conceptualise the behind-the-scenes tensions within the multifaceted child toy unboxing industry using paradox theory, managed fun and consumer socialisation which are explored across two papers, structured as Chapters 4 and 5. The first manuscript (Chapter 4) is a conceptual paper using the theory of synthesis as the methodology and presents three main paradoxes: labour-play, autonomy-control and privacy-online success which are identified as features in child toy unboxing using the paradox theory. Each paradox has a research agenda aimed at encouraging scholars to further explore child toy unboxers and to consider methodological approaches to advance our knowledge in this area. The findings from the conceptual research paper are carried forward to the second manuscript. Chapter 5 empirically investigates child toy unboxers complex practices by using a netnographic approach through the lens of managed fun and consumer socialisation. Through a triangulation of online interviews with child influencers, their parents, corporate bodies and online participant observations, and using reflexive thematic analysis to code the data, there are three key themes: authentically performative, independency in co-dependency and thriving in boundaries. The findings reveal that child influencers balance the demands of fun and managing expectations from other stakeholders whilst teaching the norms of consumption to their viewers. Both papers collectively present a framework for understanding child toy unboxing practices, contributing theoretically by extending paradox theory to the child toy unboxers context, identifying the role of the multi-level actor dynamics between child influencers, their parents, and advertisers in conjunction with managed fun and consumer socialisation. The findings also offer guidance for government bodies in developing policies that recognise the tensions of their practice in hopes of balancing empowerment and protection for influencer children.