Everybody knows it: this is the age of connection. Today’s youth aregrowing up in a fully connected world in which opportunities and possibilitiesare often interlaced with risks and responsibilities. For this reason, numerousscientists, associations and sovereign states have called for higher attentionon how digital technologies and social media can affect the younger generations[1–3]. Yet, when it comes to create saferplaces online for kids and adolescents there is one demographic that isfundamental to keep in mind: parents.
Indeed, as children’s primary caregivers, parents wield considerableinfluence over how their kids interact with media. Within the family, parentscontinuously shape and oversee the media environment surrounding their children.Whether opting for a stricter or more permissive approach to media parenting, theycan facilitate or prohibit multiple child’s behaviors and outcomes. “Does mychild have a phone or a tablet? What can he or she do with it? Will I regulateits usage or not?” These are just simple questions that all parents must answerin today’s world. Of course, not all these questions have a correct answer.Most of the time, the best decision for each parent depends on their attitudesand dispositions towards technology, as well as their parenting styles, andtheir relationship with their children.
Parents that privilege an autonomy-supportive style might be more atease with providing a developmentally appropriate rationale for their rules andtake their children’s perspective into account when interacting with them. Morespecifically, they could employ a strategy called “parental active mediation”,that is the habit to talk, explain and evaluate media content and media usewith children without indulging in criticism [4, 5]. These discussions, initiated byeither the parent or child, allow children to form their own perspectives onthe messages depicted in media. By delving into and expanding upon these themes,parents try to enhance their child's comprehension of what they're exposed to,potentially leading to beneficial outcomes. Active mediation suggests a moreautonomy-granting strategy, thus increasing the likelihood of fosteringinternally regulated values and encouraging young people disclose their mediausage and auto-adjust [6]. This strategy it’s sort of a mediavaccination: parents “inoculate” children with strategies and values tocontrast harmful media usage and then allow them to experiment, relying on whatthey learned. Thus, the main focus is on teaching adolescents to form their ownskills in critically engaging with technologies, in contrast with just imposingtime limits.
Of course, helping youths to be self-critical of their media consumptionis not an easy task. Parents need to be attentive, supportive, and involvedwith their children if they want to be successful. In fact, parental mediationhappens within the context of parent-child relationships. An involved parent isconscious of the time children spends online and can be present to alleviatepotential risks and enhance expected benefits. It is no surprise that this kindof parenting would allow for better relationships and increased reliance onactive mediation [7], as this techniques is based on theseroots.
A second fundamental point regards parental attitudes and knowledge towardsdigital technologies. Being able to describe the risks and advantages that acorrect media use brings to the table enables parents to better explain andargument their reasoning in rule-setting. Having a good self-efficacy towardstechnology can facilitate parents in understanding what is happening with thechildren’s digital world, thus helping them to approach the youth without anyill-funded criticism. Furthermore, having a positive attitude towards media canbe the decisive factor in allowing the children to experiment in a safe contextwhat these technologies allow them to do. Research support this assumption, andhighlights how positive parental attitudes towards digital technologies are infact a predictor of parental active mediation [7]. On the contrary, parents’ negativeattitudes towards technology seems to elicit the opposite effect, facilitatinga more reactive and stringent approach to technology use. [8]. This may be helpful in youngergenerations, but as children grow older, a more autonomy granting approach is appropriate,especially as they gain more digital literacy skills [9]
Thus, active media mediation seems like an excellent method to interceptand guide children’s digital technologies’ usage, even though one must admitthat, at first glance, this approach does not seem enough structured to have ameaningful impact. Nevertheless, scientific research suggest otherwise.
Parental active mediation has been linked to improvement in problematic screenuse, problematic smartphone use, media use in general, but not with problematicgaming [4, 10, 11]. All these relationships suggestthat a parent practicing active mediation does not intend to completely cut-offscreen time, but rather to find a balance that works for the whole family. Furthermore,parental active mediation seems to have an indirect effect on other behavioral outcomes,not strictly related to media use, such as higher levels of prosocial behavior,and lower levels of aggression and externalizing behavior [6]. These associations show once againthat active mediation is not only a limit-setting strategy, but an all-around parentingphilosophy. Children and adolescents may internalize positive messages fromtheir parents and apply them to different situations and environments.
In summary, parental active mediation can have significant benefits forchildren's well-being. Whether it's fostering positive behaviors, reducingproblematic screen use, or protecting them from online risks, staying activelyinvolved in young people’s media lives is key. Any parent can try to take amore active approach, it could make all the difference.
References
1. TwengeJM (2017) Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? The Atlantic
2. GaleottiT, Marino C, Canale N, et al (2024) La Sorveglianza HBSC-Italia 2022 HealthBehaviour in School-aged Children: le tecnologie digitali negli adolescenti.Istituto Superiore di Sanità
3. Home -Safer Internet Day - BIK Community. In: SaferInternet Day. https://www.saferinternetday.org. Accessed 7 Mar 2024
4. Nielsen P, Favez N, Liddle H, Rigter H (2019) Linkingparental mediation practices to adolescents’ problematic online screen use: Asystematic literature review. J Behav Addict 8:649–663.https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.8.2019.61
5. Beyens I, Keijsers L, Coyne SM (2022) Social media,parenting, and well-being. Curr Opin Psychol 47:101350.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101350
6. Padilla-Walker LM, Coyne SM, Collier KM (2016) Longitudinalrelations between parental media monitoring and adolescent aggression,prosocial behavior, and externalizing problems. J Adolesc 46:86–97.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.11.002
7. Wang M, Lwin MO, Cayabyab YMTM, et al (2023) A Meta-Analysisof Factors Predicting Parental Mediation of Children’s Media Use Based onStudies Published Between 1992–2019. J Child Fam Stud.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02459-y
8. Sanders W, Parent J, Forehand R, et al (2016) Parentalperceptions of technology and technology-focused parenting: Associations withyouth screen time. J Appl Dev Psychol 44:28–38.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2016.02.005
9. American Psychological Association (2023) Health advisory onsocial media use in adolescence. In: https://www.apa.org.https://www.apa.org/topics/social-media-internet/health-advisory-adolescent-social-media-use.Accessed 16 May 2023
10. Hefner D, Knop K, Schmitt S, Vorderer P (2019) Rules? RoleModel? Relationship? The Impact of Parents on Their Children’s ProblematicMobile Phone Involvement. Media Psychol 22:82–108. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2018.1433544
11. Padilla-Walker LM, Coyne SM, Kroff SL, Memmott-Elison MK (2018)The Protective Role of Parental Media Monitoring Style from Early to LateAdolescence. J Youth Adolesc 47:445–459.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0722-4
