Online opportunities and risks for children and adolescents: The role of digital skills, age, gender and parental mediation in Brazil

Abstract

This article presents a study that applies integrated and multi-factor path analysis to report the direct and indirect effects of young Brazilian individual and home factors on their online opportunities and risks. The results show that engaging in more online opportunities, being older and having a lower level of parental mediation are associated with a higher number of online risks. At the same time, being older, having Internet access at home, having parents with a higher educational level, possessing more digital skills and receiving a higher level of co-use and active parental mediation are positively associated with online opportunities. Although restrictive parental mediation is negatively associated with online risks, it also reduces opportunities. In addition, co-use and active mediation are positively associated with parental educational level. These findings offer a starting point to understand children’s online behaviour and digital inclusion in Latin America and analyse its differences with other regions.