The role of parents in the engagement of young children with digital technologies: Exploring tensions between rights of access and protection, from ‘Gatekeepers’ to ‘Scaffolders’

This study investigates the role played by parents as mediators of young children’s access and engagement with digital technologies. In Belgium, Germany, Latvia and Portugal, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 families in each country, including one child between 6 and 7 years old. Our findings show that parents of young children mainly play the role of ‘gatekeepers’ when it comes to facilitating and constraining access to and use of digital technologies. Parents’ perceptions of the efficacy of digital technologies as responsible entertainment and as educational tools influence the technologies available at home and accessible to the child. These perceptions in turn impact parents’ mediation strategies with regard to children’s actual use of digital technologies, with restrictive mediation – of time and less of content – and supervision applied most. The power exerted by parents over access and use may be understood as a limitation of the children’s rights. On the other hand, parents are not always concerned with the right of protection as they believe – sometimes incorrectly – that they are in control of the content their children are exposed to.

[1]  Christine Stephen,et al.  The technologisation of childhood? Young children and technology in the home , 2010 .

[2]  Peter Nikken,et al.  How and Why Parents Guide the Media Use of Young Children , 2015, Journal of child and family studies.

[3]  P. Nikken,et al.  PARENTAL MEDIATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN ’ S INTERNET USE , 2011 .

[4]  Ari Brown.  Media Use by Children Younger Than 2 Years , 2011, Pediatrics.

[5]  Vivian Hsueh-hua Chen,et al.  Young school children's use of digital devices and parental rules , 2015, Telematics Informatics.

[6]  S. Livingstone.  Children's digital rights: a priority , 2014 .

[7]  S. Livingstone,et al.  Parental Mediation of Children's Internet Use , 2008 .

[8]  Sonia Livingstone,et al.  Strategies of parental regulation in the media-rich home , 2007, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[9]  D. Cross,et al.  Longitudinal analysis of the presence, efficacy and stability of maternal scaffolding during informal problem-solving interactions. , 2003 .

[10]  Jeroen Jansz,et al.  Parents' Interest in Videogame Ratings and Content Descriptors in Relation to Game Mediation , 2007 .

[11]  L. Plowman,et al.  Just picking it up? Young children learning with technology at home , 2008 .

[12]  David Poveda,et al.  Young children (0-8) and digital technology. : A qualitative exploratory study. National report : Spain , 2016 .

[13]  Joanne O'Mara,et al.  Shifting Practices and Frames: Literacy, Learning and Computer Games , 2016 .

[14]  P. Nikken,et al.  Guiding young children’s internet use at home: Problems that parents experience in their parental mediation and the need for parenting support , 2015 .

[15]  Lydia Plowman,et al.  Researching Young Children's Everyday Uses of Technology in the Family Home , 2015, Interact. Comput..

[16]  M. Prensky.  Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1 , 2001 .

[17]  S. Livingstone,et al.  Young children (0-8) and digital technology: a qualitative exploratory study - national report - UK , 2014 .

[18]  Leonie Rutherford,et al.  Digital Natives? New and Old Media and Children's Outcomes , 2011 .

[19]  Chaudron Stephane,et al.  Young Children (0-8) and digital technology: A qualitative exploratory study across seven countries , 2015 .

[20]  Sonia Livingstone,et al.  Zero to eight: young children and their internet use , 2013 .

[21]  Christine Stephen,et al.  Young children engaging with technologies at home: The influence of family context , 2013 .

[22]  V. Braun,et al.  Using thematic analysis in psychology , 2006 .

[23]  Jan Van Looy,et al.  A Qualitative Inquiry into the Contextualized Parental Mediation Practices of Young Children’s Digital Media Use at Home , 2016 .

[24]  F. Al-Shamali,et al.  Author Biographies. , 2015, Journal of social work in disability & rehabilitation.

[25]  Sonia Livingstone,et al.  Parental mediation and children’s Internet use , 2010 .

[26]  J. Marsh.  The Relationship between Online and Offline Play: Friendship and Exclusion , 2016 .

[27]  Alexis R. Lauricella,et al.  Young children's screen time: The complex role of parent and child factors , 2015 .

[28]  Johanna Bockman,et al.  United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) , 2003 .

[29]  Brian O'Neill,et al.  Final recommendations for policy, methodology and research , 2011 .

[30]  Kursat Cagiltay,et al.  EU Kids Online II Dataset: A cross-national study of children's use of the Internet and its associated opportunities and risks , 2015, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[31]  Zülfü Genç,et al.  Parents’ Perceptions about the Mobile Technology Use of Preschool Aged Children , 2014 .