Modeling adolescent online risk-taking through digital literacy and parental mediation in Indonesia

BackgroundDigital technology has a two-sided impact whether it is used appropriately or not. It is crucial to promote the benefits of digital technology and reduce its harms by bolstering adolescents’ digital literacy. The appropriateness of the strategies parents use to manage their children’s digital lives plays a key role. This study aims to investigate the separate effects of family socio-demographic factors and varied dimensions of parental mediation on adolescents’ digital literacy separately and simultaneously to explore the appropriate parental mediation strategies even in the absence of favorable family status.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was utilized with a sample of 1894 Chinese adolescents in junior and senior high schools (mean age = 14.01, 48.94% female), using a set of exam questions to test children’s objective digital literacy online. Family socio-demographic factors (parental marital status, economic status, and parental education levels) and varied dimensions of parental mediation were included as predictors of digital literacy. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to estimate the relation between the variables.ResultsHigher parental education levels were positively associated with adolescents’ parental mediation and digital literacy while better family economic status and parental divorce were negatively associated. Among the dimensions of parental mediation, active mediation, restrictive mediation and supervision were significantly associated with adolescents’ digital literacy, but not for co-use. Active mediation and supervision showed significant positive associations with adolescents’ digital literacy, whereas, co-use showed a significant negative association when all parental mediation dimensions were integrated into the model, The significant association between restrictive mediation and digital literacy disappeared. Parental mediation has diluted the impact of family socio-demographic factors on adolescents’ digital literacy.ConclusionsEffective interventions are needed to promote parental active mediation and supervision to help adolescents develop digital literacy and navigate the digital world, especially for adolescents who do not have highly educated parents or whose parents are divorced.

In the current information society, digital literacy has become an indispensable part of individuals’ overall literacy. Thus, investigating the factors influencing digital literacy is of theoretical and practical significance, especially for developing children. Against this background, the present study examined the association between family socioeconomic status and children’s digital literacy and the mediating roles of active and restrictive parental internet mediation in this association. A total of 1050 Chinese students ranging from Grades 4 to 8 completed questionnaires in their classrooms. Regression-based analyses showed that (1) family socioeconomic status was positively associated with digital literacy and (2) active parental mediation could significantly mediate this relationship, but the mediating effect of restrictive parental mediation was insignificant. This research not only deepens our understanding of the factors affecting digital literacy but also provides an empirical reference point for interventions to improve children’s digital literacy.

This study utilised a school-based survey with parent reports across 1,050 Nigerian parents to investigate the socio-demographic variables influencing parental media mediation and examine digital literacy as a mediator of demographic variables and parental mediation. The sample comprised 1,050 parents aged 25-65 who had children aged 13-18 years living with them. The participants were parents of children in the targeted schools in Lagos. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) were applied to analyse the collected data to investigate the relationship among the demographic variables, parents' digital literacy, and parental mediation practices. It was revealed that the socio-demographic variables (the age and gender of parent and child, marital status and educational qualification) directly influenced parental mediation types. The indirect effect of the mediating variable offers further evidence that parents' digital literacy can enhance mediation strategies for parents in Nigerian families.

This study explores parental mediation – its patterns, purpose and intention, the intentions behind it, and related social inequalities – from the perspective of the ideal of intensive parenting. Parental mediation in the form of restricting or monitoring teenagers’ technology use might mitigate the harm of the intensive or risky online behaviour. Moreover, active mediation strategies might improve the teenagers’ digital literacy by obtaining specific skills that foster appropriate online behaviour. Therefore, the paper argues that parental mediation has become a highly relevant aspect of contemporary parenting practices. The paper is based on thematic analyses of semi-structured interviews on children’s screen time and parental mediation strategies. The interviews were carried out with 29 parents of adolescents in Hungary in 2019. The findings show that restriction and active mediation primarily aimed at protecting children from risks, as a resource-intensive practice, form part of the contemporary parenting skill set. This study contributes to understanding how these skills constitute a digital cultural capital, and thereby how parenting can enhance the digital inequality.

Does digital literacy influence students’ online risk? Evidence from Covid-19

Mother's Perspective About Using the Gadget Safeness for Children

In today’s fragmented media landscape, social media influencers (SMIs) have emerged as popular political information sources among young audiences—despite often lacking political expertise. However, we have limited knowledge about factors that predict trust in SMIs’ political content during early and middle adolescence, a critical period during which political attitudes are formed. This study proposes two novel theoretical pathways to explain varying trust perceptions between and within adolescents: a source-centered pathway, focusing on observed SMI-audience interactions and motive attribution, and an audience-centered pathway, emphasizing adolescents’ digital literacy and parental mediation. A three-wave panel survey ( N W3 = 799 parent-child dyads) shows that trust in SMIs’ political information is higher among those adolescents who view SMIs as involved with their audiences and altruistically motivated, and among adolescents with high digital literacy and whose parents engage in active mediation. However, changes in these variables do not predict deviations from adolescents’ usual trust levels.

Cyberbullying has become a critical issue in many parts of the world. Children affected by bullying in cyberspace may also experience various other problems in their daily lives, such as emotional and behavioral issues. Despite the well-documented positive correlation between digital technology use and cyberbullying experiences in adolescents, a paucity of research has explored the association between digital technology use and cyberbullying, and the extent to which digital literacy (DL) and parental mediation moderate these relationships among primary school-aged children. This study addressed these research gaps. A total of 736 children (third grade, female = 52 percent) in Hong Kong, selected through stratified random sampling, reported on their digital technology use, parental mediation of technology use (i.e., active mediation and restriction), and cyberbullying experiences. A performance-based assessment measured children's DL. Results showed a positive association between children's digital technology use (both for leisure activities and for schoolwork) and cyberbullying experiences (both as perpetrator and victim). These positive associations were more pronounced among children with low levels of DL (only victims) as well as among children with highly restrictive parents (both perpetrators and victims). Implications for digital citizenship education and parental intervention are discussed.

This study aims to describe consulting services through parental mediation strategies as an effort to improve students’ digital literacy. This is achieved through the library method by reading relevant data sources related to the themes of consulting services, parental mediation, and digital literacy. The information obtained is analyzed, recorded, and processed by in-depth content analysis and written in a narrative manner into the research results. The results of the study show that consulting services with parental mediation can be used to help improve students’ understanding of digital literacy. Service implementation is carried out through: (1) introduction stage; (2) situation description/ problem identification and analysis of problems; (3) the selection of solutions and how to use them; (4) demonstration of the selected solution; (5) conducting training and feedback; (6) giving homework; (7) evaluating the process and results and (8) terminating the consulting relationship. The implications of the study are to strengthen the role of school collaboration with parents in children's education and increase positive internet skills in students when learning at home.

A study of the relationship between parental mediation and adolescents’ digital skills, online risks and online opportunities

Digital literacy development begins in early childhood and contributes to a widening digital divide. The present study examines the complex interplay between family socioeconomic status (SES), home digital resources (HDR), parental mediation (PM), and early digital literacy development in young children. A survey titled Home Digital Practice Survey (HDPS) was responded to by 1,876 Chinese parents of preschoolers (Mage = 4.28 years, SD = 0.98, 48.8% girls). Results, derived from both correlation analysis and structural equation modeling, established that (1) there was a significant correlation between family SES and early digital literacy in children (β = .102, p < .01), and (2) HDR (β = 0.285, p < .001) and PM (β = 0.290, p < .001) served as simultaneous mediators linking family SES and early digital literacy. The findings are discussed as relevant to minimizing the digital divide and enhancing children's digital literacy.

In this article, we first compare adolescents’ responses to two formats (easily recognizable versus not easily recognizable) Internet ads. We find that Internet literacy and ad skepticism are necessary for adolescents to effectively apply persuasion knowledge to identify both ad formats. Second, we demonstrate that parental mediation and parents’ levels of Internet skills are critical for children’s development of Internet literacy. As a result, this article advances our understanding of adolescents’ responses to different Internet ad formats and the influential role of parental mediation in facilitating children’s development of such skills.

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Still low in cognitive abilities and lack of life experience causes the effects of digital media on children to always be a special concern. With the very dynamic development of technology, every day children can meet a variety of new content. In fact, the character of gadget content is indeed created so that the audience can not stop consuming. The ignorance of parents about this causes addiction to gadget consumption in children is difficult to overcome. As a reference in educating children, the teacher becomes a place to ask questions and help so that children can get away from gadgets. Therefore, it is important for teachers to understand the steps in implementing parental mediation, and the technical way of media education for children at home by parents. The community service team in collaboration with the teacher community held a parental mediation education program. Based on the results of brainstorming problems with partners, this program has the main topics of Parental Mediation, Assertive Communication, and Child Development Tasks. The methods used are webinars, FGDs, and the practice of making reflective writings on understanding the concept of parental mediation. The results of the program are teachers' understanding of the concept of parental mediation. In addition, the recap of the questionnaire shows the satisfaction of the participants in joining the program. Another outcome of this program is the intellectual property rights of the training modules made by the team. This module will be used in sustainability programs in other areas. &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Keywords: Parental mediation, teacher, digital literacy

Video apps are widely used by children worldwide. However, concerns have been raised about children's personal data disclosure and privacy risks during their consumption of video apps. This study designed and validated a conceptual model for children's continuance intention to use video apps based on privacy calculus theory and Teen Online Safety Strategies (TOSS) parental mediation framework. A cross‐sectional survey of 321 Chinese middle school‐aged children (aged 12–14) was conducted to validate the model. Our findings revealed that children's perceived risk had a minimal association with their perceived value. Children's perceived benefit was positively associated with their perceived value, which was positively associated with their continuance intention to use video apps. Trust also contributed to children's continuance intention to use video apps, slightly positively moderated by restrictive parental mediation. This study provided a better understanding of children's perception of privacy, trust and value in consuming video apps and identified the potential role of related parental mediation. To mitigate children's privacy risks and to enhance children's digital literacy as well as digital autonomy, we proposed some recommendations to video app designers, parents and educators. The study appeals to a more transparent and child‐centred approach in designing video apps, a mixed parental mediation for facilitating children's video app usage, and educators' empowering children's autonomy in online privacy protection by improving children's digital skills and competencies.

BackgroundIn today's society, a growing body of literature attests to the importance of young children's early digital literacy skills in their home environments and how acquisition of these digital literacy skills relates to their future learning and digital literacy.ObjectivesResearch on young children's digital literacy practices at home was reviewed to explore the positive and negative influences on early learning. This is important due to the children's rapid uptake of online digital technologies over the past decade.MethodsPeer‐reviewed research articles on home digital literacy practices of children (aged 0–8 years old) published between 2010 and 2021 from four education databases were carefully selected based upon pre‐determined criteria and examined using content analysis.Results and ConclusionA high proportion of studies (29 of the 31; 93.5%) demonstrated significant benefits of young children gaining a range of skills, including digital operational, early literacy and language, socio‐emotional, and STEM, through the use of digital technologies at home. Five of the 31 (16.12%) studies reported negative effects of digital technologies in the home context, including distraction, aggressive behaviour, and false self‐confidence. Tablets and smartphone use gained greater momentum in the home context, especially between 2015 and 2021, and there was a positive shift in parental mediation, family involvement, and the children's home digital literacy practices.ImplicationsBy leveraging children's acquisition of digital literacy skills in the home and taking into account the sociocultural context, we can enhance young children's preparation for the future and provide opportunities for skill development across various learning domains.