The kids are alright: why young people are protesting in virtual worlds

As the dense, indigo dusk settles, a flock of protestors descends on a promenade with unrelenting energy, their feet navigating the aged paving in near-flawless unison. It’s a scene that could have been lifted from the squares of any capital city this weekend, only the figures chanting and bearing Palestinian flags are comprised of chunky neon pixels rather than flesh or bone – and the streets they steadily tread don’t exist in any country, but within the layers of code that make up the virtual world of Roblox.

The clip, which has since gone viral, is one of many examples of IRL protests taking over virtual worlds. Upon the election of Donald Trump in 2016, young users stormed Club Penguin’s servers to decry the former president’s victory in an election they were too young to vote for. In 2020, young people confined to their homes turned to Toontown, Habbo and Roblox to stage Black Lives Matter demonstrations amid lockdown restrictions. The same year, Hong Kong activists utilised the newly launched Animal Crossing: New Horizons to criticise Chinese President Xi Jinping by creating digital banners of his face, eventually leading to the government banning the game’s sale in Hong Kong and China.

So, how have games designed for young people to virtually fish, run around and dress up become sites of protest for young people? “What is important for us is the fact that children deconstruct such a tool for fun by interpreting its meaning and its applicability and then reconstructing it as a means for political participation,” says Dr. Kei Nishiyama, lecturer at Kaichi International University. While protesting in the physical world may be off limits to some young people – often a result of parental control, government censorship or lack of access – virtual worlds can provide an outlet, and opportunities, to get involved. “Here, we can see children’s creative agency,” Nishiyama says.

The past month in particular has seen a spotlight shone on the virtual protests taking place on Roblox, a website where 60 per cent of users are aged 16 or under. Using their cubed avatars, players have created digital versions of the pro-Palestine marches taking place across the globe, calling for a ceasefire to end civilian suffering. 14-year-old Amber* decided to attend a Roblox protest out of frustration that she couldn’t do anything to help as a teenager in America. “It was heartbreaking for me to witness the tragedies occurring within the country of Palestine, so I looked for ways that I could do something,” she says. “It was a good way for me to put my opinions out there.”

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Videogames have typically existed as otherworldly escapes from the mundanity of everyday life – think: fantasy games such as Zelda or Baldur’s Gate. Yet young users are increasingly flocking to virtual spaces to expand on the IRL. Kids log on to Club Penguin to take shifts as baristas at coffee shops or waiters at the Pizza Parlour, while some Animal Crossing players utilise the game’s infinite creation possibilities to build digital homes. “What we’re seeing in all of these virtual environments is that things that [users are] seeing and doing offline, they bring into these online spaces because they’re meaningful to them,” explains Katie Salen Tekinbaş, professor at the University of California, Irvine. As young people become more politically involved – such as the surge in young climate activists in recent years – this is reflected in how they play within virtual environments. “It’s a way to try something out with limited consequences,” Tekinbaş says. “If you look at the history of play, it’s always connected to the real world. Play has always been a way that humans learn. And we often have to engage with difficult things during play.”

Safety was the driving force for 16-year-old Charlie’s* decision to protest on Roblox, whose family preferred they didn’t attend in-person demonstrations. “I didn’t know if I’d make an impact but it was nice to know a lot of other people wanted to protest,” they say. “I chose Roblox because it’s a big site full of different games and you can mimic what you want to do in real life.”

It was a similar circumstance that spurred Yara to organise a protest on Club Penguin in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected. “I remember going into the [in-game] nightclub and I just started typing ‘down with Trump!’ into the chat feature. Before I knew it, people were joining in,” she says. Prior to this, she had never attended a real-life protest but felt the contrast of activism against the backdrop of Club Penguin’s serene icy island had the potential to create a talking point. “It was a creative outlet and a new platform to spread awareness of what was going on during that time,” she explains. Though in reality, the protest did little to achieve political change – Trump completed a full term as president – the protests went viral, sending a clear message from a generation of future voters.

“We’re children of the internet, it’s what we use to navigate and understand the world”

Given virtual protests being so easy to attend, however, there’s a risk that young people will begin to choose these comfortable alternatives over in-person demonstrations. But Jacquelien van Stekelenburg, professor of social change and conflict at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, says that so far this isn’t the case. “What we see at the moment, is actually precisely the opposite. We see an explosion of protests,” she says. “The young generation is very active at the moment. They were accused of being pacifists and not interested in politics, but that is definitely not the case.”

Yet van Stekelenburg does worry that one attribute of in-person protest that cannot be fully replicated online is the development of personal identity – a crucial motivation for community-driven change. “All the research shows that your first protest is an identity-changing event. People really start to see themselves as activists,” she says. “It’s a fascinating experience to be there as part of the crowd, it really does something to you. And that is something that you do not have if you are attending digitally.”

However, the anonymity granted by virtual worlds remains appealing for many young people, especially during an era when protestors are at risk of public harassment from police. Plus, it’s an environment young people are familiar with. “We’re children of the internet, it’s what we use to navigate and understand the world,” Yara explains. “Plus, it’s easier to group people together on message boards, social media or gaming platforms.”

There’s also new innovation and resilience that comes with this kind of online activism – evident in Minecraft’s Uncensored Libraries, where non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders gather banned reporting from nine countries to allow users to freely access information prohibited by their governments. Then there’s the pro-Palestine protests that continue to crop up on Roblox as other corners of the internet block content associated with the demonstrations. “No matter how we adults – or those who have political power – try to depoliticise children’s online experience, children can politicise it in an unpredictable fashion,” says Nishiyama. “Rather than depoliticise children’s experience, we have to acknowledge that children can be political – in other words, they are not future citizens but citizens of today.”

This is a sentiment the younger generation echoes, as Amber summarises the most important motivation for her online activism: “I think it’s so important for young people to try and get their options out there and let their voices be heard,” she concludes. “Our voices may not be loud but they deserve to be heard.”

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