Iranian Journal of Sociology

Abstract
Abstract:
The emergence of inclusive and income-generating social networks such as Instagram in today's era, which has provided the ability to display and share daily life events for its users; This has caused us to face the novel and new phenomenon of "virtual working children" or "Instagram working children", children who actually work as virtual workers under the command of their employers, including their parents or first-degree relatives, in these virtual social networks. Therefore, the sociological analysis of the social contexts of the formation and emergence of this phenomenon in society has been the main goal of this research. The research method is qualitative and based on foundation data, and the subjects were selected through purposive and snowball sampling. The participants are actually the parents of children who, as their employers, manage their work-advertising activities in the Instagram virtual network. Therefore, 20 parents answered the researcher's questions through semi-structured in-depth interviews. The type of activities and tasks done by children on the Instagram social network are classified into three categories: A- Advertising works, B- Demonstration works and C- Service works. The data from this research was extracted after the three stages of coding, including open, central and selective, a total of 255 concepts, 22 sub-categories and 4 main categories. The categories are: "virtual bio-business, virtual child, fluid identity and the ultimate desirability of parent-centered" and finally by combining the obtained models. The core category of "virtual slave child" was introduced. A type of modern slavery and virtual exploitation that is carried out in the streets by street children to provide a minimum livelihood and survive, but in cyber space with the aim of earning millions, becoming a celebrity and displaying all aspects of their lives by the parents-employers of virtual children. It is visible.