Hidden victims of digital culture: Pedagogical strategies for strengthening the self-perception and digital resilience of adolescent girls on social media

The subject of this paper is the pedagogical understanding of adolescent girls‘ self-perception in the context of visually oriented social networking sites, together with the forms of digital victimization that affect them in often unnoticed ways. Its aim is to articulate, on the basis of a critical review and analysis of contemporary Serbian and international literature, pedagogical strategies through which educational institutions can strengthen girls‘ critical media literacy and digital resilience. Drawing on self-objectification theory and social comparison theory, the paper argues that the problem does not lie primarily in the amount of time spent online, but in the way digital environments are designed and in the shifts in value systems they encourage, whereby the sources of self-worth move from within the person toward external, unstable indicators. It examines gender-based digital victimization and the notion of „hidden victims“, critically reconsiders the influential but contested thesis of the „great rewiring of childhood“, and reviews the Serbian normative framework and the design of digital platforms. The paper concludes that an effective pedagogical response requires a shift from a restrictive toward an empowering approach, gro­unded in the development of critical media literacy, the strengthening of internal sources of self-esteem, and the integration of existing resources into a continuous, age- and gender-sensitive programme.