Research into the behaviour of minors and young people on social networks using social big data techniques

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify the academic research related to the behaviour and communication consumption of minors and young people on the internet through the use of a Social Big Data (SBD) methodology. A systematic review has identified 58 scholarly works published between 2010 and 2020 (May). This article has summarised the most widely studied aspect of the issue, as well as the countries that have conducted the largest amount of research, the academic profile of the journals, research techniques based on SBD, and the most relevant findings. The main conclusions of the study are that scientists currently use SBD to understand the uses and effects of adolescent online activity by analysing large amounts of data in real time, and also to create algorithms that make it possible to identify trends in adolescent risk. It has been confirmed that there is a scarce amount of academic research related to this topic in social science journals, and there is also a shortage of an association and co-authorship between communicologists and sociologists, on the one hand, and scientists with a technical background on the other hand, which is necessary in order to achieve a greater understanding of the situation and increase the number of publications related to this issue in the area of social science.