Classified children: A critical analysis of the digital interfaces and representations that mediate adoption in the United States

Abstract

In this article I analyse websites in the public domain which represent children deemed eligible for adoption into families in the United States. These websites consist of photographs of children accompanied by details about their lives, health and personalities. Using critical technocultural discourse analysis, I outline three different ways in which children are classified in these digital spaces. I argue that it is through a combination of textual and photographic representation, as well as platform and interface design, that ideologies related to racial identity and nationality intersect to create a hierarchical system, which differentially classifies these children. I explain the significance of these classificatory schemes by drawing on decolonial thought and critical race theory. Ultimately, I argue that discourses and interfaces work together to reproduce, intensify and reify an intersectionally oppressive system of structural inequality.