”JO, MEN DE E LITE, LITE SAMMA, FAST JÄTTE MYCKE OLIKA” En sociokulturell studie av barns sociotekniska praktik på Roblox

Abstract

This study explores how children’s actions and reflections on the digital game platform Roblox can be understood in relation to moral orientation, value creation and the platform’s sociotechnical conditions. Drawing on a sociocultural perspective, the study examines how children negotiate issues of fairness, care, responsibility, status and belonging through everyday participation in digital play practices. The theoretical framework is primarily based on Lev Vygotsky and later sociocultural research on mediation, agency and affordances, while morality is mainly understood through Mark Tappan and complemented by Jarrett Zigon perspectives on morality as situated and relational practice. The study is based on a qualitative digital ethnographic approach involving nine children aged 10–11. Data were generated through guided tour sessions on Roblox, combining gameplay observations, screen recordings, audio and video recordings, field notes and semi-structured interviews. The material was analysed abductively and multimodally, with attention directed towards how meaning emerged through speech, avatar actions and sociotechnical interaction during play. The findings show how children’s participation on Roblox is characterised by ongoing negotiations between competition and care, rules and fairness, as well as social belonging and monetised platform conditions. Moral orientations often emerged through situated actions rather than explicit moral reasoning, particularly in situations involving exclusion, cooperation, status and value exchange. The results also show how children developed practical strategies to navigate the platform’s social, technical and commercial conditions. Roblox therefore emerges not merely as a game environment, but as a sociotechnical and participatory practice where moral orientations, social relations and forms of value are continuously shaped through the interplay between children’s actions and the platform’s affordances and monetisation structures