Parental Mediation Of Children's Internet Use In Different European Countries

Abstract

Given that various childrearing cultures exist in Europe, as confirmed by analysis of the 1999/2000 European Values Survey (Halman, 2001), the present study aimed to identify and explain cross-cultural similarities and differences in strategies of parental mediation of children's Internet use. The study also sought to identify which parental mediation strategies may protect children against experiencing content risks online in general and in various childrearing cultures in particular. Parental mediation strategies and content online risk were indexed on the basis of data from 18 European countries from the Eurobarometer 2005. Findings show that all parents favor social mediation of the internet for children over strategies based on technical solutions. Favoring restrictive (by time or content) to non-restrictive mediation depends on a country's value orientation in childrearing. Analyses showed that each parental strategy has the potential to reduce the probability of children's experience of content risk online. However, the extent to which particular parental mediation strategies are protective differs across European childrearing cultures.