Nowadays parents know and understand the importance of rules and settings regarding digital technology use. One could venture to say that managing the pervasiveness of these instruments in their children’s lives has become one of their most difficult tasks. To this regard, parental media mediation strategies are not only key strategies to support young people in their skills development, but also an effective way to prevent dysfunctional device use. However, parents of today find themselves fighting to understand and adapt to new technological advancements, as each one of them can lead to less control over children’s media use [1]. This is especially important since it’s known that when parents have less digital knowledge than their teens, it is harder for them to implement and enforce appropriate rules to protect them [2].
One technical tool that may help parents in this endeavor is parental control software. These instruments are technical solutions designed to prevent the difficulties associated with the media usage of children and adolescents. These tools are becoming more and more popular, with some countries, such as Italy, that have even implemented laws about the requirement for internet companies to provide parental control software on minors’ sim card [3]. These instruments can limit or guide what kind of content young people consume online and be a practical way to enforce time regulation. Further more, some studies suggest that utilizing parental control software can help parents navigate stressful situations more effectively. In fact, these instruments would act as “digital assistants” for what concerns the strictly technical time limits, allowing parents to conserve their psychological resources for different tasks [4].
Of course, parents can’t just impose time and content rules from above and expect their children to just follow them: young people must make sense of their parents’ rule if they are to follow them. If parents and children do not agree, then children are likely to try to circumvent and undermine parental mediation strategies [5]. Thus, how can parents understand what kind of rules their children will follow? Are there guidelines to help them navigate this complex relationship?
Unfortunately, not.
Like most things, parents must be able to effectively communicate with their children to understand and meet their needs. There is always one important thing to keep in mind though: the child’s age or maturity’s level. In fact, research suggests that as age increases, the effect of restrictive mediation on the length of media use declines, and that young people, seeking greater autonomy during their adolescent years, may come to resent parental interference, viewing restrictions on their media choices as a lack of trust from parents [6, 7]. Nevertheless, even in this dynamic interplay of negotiation and compromise, parents ultimately retain the authority to make final decisions and enforce them.
To this end, parental restrictive mediation is an umbrella term that refers to all parental behaviors aimed at limiting and restricting when or how much time young people can use digital technology, or what they can do with it [8]. These actions can be done verbally, by talking about time limits, physically, by removing digital devices after a certain amount of time has passed, or technically, by employing a parental control software.
Research suggests that parental restrictive mediation is effective atlimiting or reducing time spent on social media both in children and adolescents [6, 9]. However, this is not the only reason to employ this strategy. Parental restrictive mediation seems to be a successful strategy to protect children from online risks. Research shows that young people who experience some sort of restrictive mediation disclose less of their information online, and undergo reduced rates of online harassment [10, 11]. Restrictive media mediation is also associated with a lower problematic social media use in children, and seems to be a protective factor for early initiation to digital technologies [12, 13]. However, these results are not stable across age, and are not seen with the adolescent population [1]. In this context, adolescence marks a period of increased attention to peer approval and detachment from parents; here, restrictive mediation might exacerbate parent-child conflict around autonomy, especially when this strategy is enacted with application that don’t allow for privacy and independence [2].
Of course, restrictive parental mediation can’t be the answer to all youth’s technology use. In fact, research suggests that this kind of strategy doesn’t work with problematic video game use [14]. It’s not clear why though. It could be that different medium requires different strategies or that young people can easily circumvent limits on their playing time; for example, an adolescent who isn’t allowed to play at home can easily go to a friend’s house and play there together. Another possible answer to this conundrum is that restrictive mediation is not always applied in a proactive way. In fact, parents may decide to implement rules and regulations after they notice that their child is playing too much [15]. Unfortunately, much of the research done on this topic has been cross-sectional, which means that it can’t distinguish between what comes before or after; is it the problematic gaming or the restrictive mediation? Further studies are needed to elucidate this problem.
In conclusion, navigating the digital landscape as a parent presents a myriad of challenges. However, it's evident that establishing clear rules and utilizing tools like parental control software can significantly aid in managing children's media usage. Understanding when and how to apply restrictive mediation tactics is crucial, with research suggesting its effectiveness in mitigating online risks and reducing problematic behaviors. While it's not a one-size-fits-all solution, proactive implementation of these strategies before compulsive media habits form remains vital.For this reason, families that prioritize and communicate clear, effective media strategies and regulations are better equipped to guide their children through the digital world with confidence and responsibility.
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2. Ghosh AK, Badillo-Urquiola K, Rosson MB, et al (2018) A Matter of Control or Safety? Examining Parental Use of Technical Monitoring Apps on Teens’ Mobile Devices. In: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, pp 1–14
3. Parental Control - AGCOM. Accessed 20 Mar 2024
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