Communication of Parents to Children in Monitoring Digital Media Use

Abstract

People's daily life today can hardly be separated from digital media. Nevertheless, digital media has both positive and negative impacts. The positive impact is digital media makes life easier, but it can also have a negative impact on people's well-being if it is not used properly and out of control. The presence of massive digital media requires wise users. However, it will not be easy for children to do so that they need accompaniment from parents. The form of accompaniment includes effective communication with children by increasing parent’s credibility so that children trust their parents and the objective of communication can be achieved. This research is conducted by applying descriptive method. The purpose of this study is to discover how parents communicate with children to help them choose, use, and recognize the benefits and negative impacts of digital media. The results show that parents have an important role in simultaneously accompanying and monitoring their children in using digital media. Parents must be able to communicate in various ways, have the ability to build empathy, own a sense of belonging in children, and allow children to express their thoughts and feelings; those are several considerations for parents in accompanying and monitoring children's digital media use.