(In)Visibility of Children and Their Psychosocial Vulnerability–The Narrowed Discourse on Children in the First Year of the Pandemic in Germany

German children and young people took on an ambivalent role in the pandemic: Largely banished and invisible in the public sphere during the so-called lockdowns, their media representation followed abbreviated narratives that considered children primarily responsible for the health of specific risk groups. Their own claims to protection and participation, and their psychosocial vulnerability, which was particularly impaired by the measures of social distancing, initially remained invisible. This paper examines the extent to which child and youth-specific issues were present in German media discourse in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and which issues remained blind spots.