Parental Mediation of Children's Internet Use

TLDR: In this paper, a national survey of 1511 children and 906 parents found that 12-17-year-olds encounter a range of online risks, and that parental intervention was not necessarily effective in reducing risk.

Abstract: This article examines parental regulation of children and teenagers' online activities. A national survey of 1511 children and 906 parents found that 12–17-year-olds encounter a range of online risks. Parents implement a range of strategies, favoring active co-use and interaction rules over technical restrictions using filters or monitoring software, but these were not necessarily effective in reducing risk. Parental restriction of online peer-to-peer interactions was associated with reduced risk but other mediation strategies, including the widely practiced active co-use, were not. These findings challenge researchers to identify effective strategies without impeding teenagers' freedom to interact with their peers online.

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Frequently asked questions

Q1. What contributions have the authors mentioned in the paper "Parental mediation and children’s internet use" ?

This article examines parental regulation of children and teenagers ’ online activities. Though parents assume media affect other people ’ s children more than their own ( Nathanson, Eveland, Park, & Paul, 2002 ), they try to regulate their children ’ s media use, hoping to maximize the advantages of today ’ s media-rich environment for their children and to minimize the disadvantages, as examined in this article. This line of inquiry directs researchers to the importance of family communication patterns ( Ritchie & Fitzpatrick, 1990 ) or parenting styles ( Eastin, Greenberg, & Hofschire, 2006 ). Restrictive mediation varies in effectiveness depending on the degree of restriction applied ( Nathanson et al., 2002 ), though some suggest that restrictive television regulation does reduce risks, albeit by dint of reducing media use overall ( Van den Bulck & Van den Bergh, 2000 ). Further investigation is clearly needed, and hence the second research question is: RQ2: Is parental mediation associated with a reduction in teenagers ’ online risks ? 

Q2. What is the common strategy for parents to use the Internet?

Two thirds of parents talk to their child about Internet use, nearly half watch the screen, and one third stay nearby when their child is online. 

Q3. What were the questions asked of the children who used the Internet at least once per week?

Questions about online risks and parental mediation were asked of the 84% of the children who used the Internet at least once per week. 

Q4. What is the effect of parental mediation on the child’s risk taking?

as suggested earlier, more expert parents, or parents more positive about the Internet, may implement more rules or active co-use and so have children who more successfully avoid risks. 

Q5. What is the reason for the correlation between rules and risks?

Since both rules and risks are stratified by the child’s age, gender, and social class, the possibility remains that the correlation between risky activities and a ban on these is due to a third factor—child’s age or class, for instance.