Abstract
Children’s use of digital media is associated with risky experiences, a situation warranting parental mediation. Previous studies on parental mediation of children’s digital media use, conducted in advanced countries in Europe, America and Asia with rich experiences of children’s digital media use, examined only specific risks and rarely focused on effectiveness of the mediation strategies adopted. The present study investigated parental mediation of children’s risky experiences with digital media in an African setting, focused on four categories of risks and measured the effectiveness of adopted mediation strategies. Objectives of the study were to identify the mediation strategies parents applied in mediating risks (conduct, content, contact and commercial) encountered by children in the use of digital media, and ascertain the consequences of the mediation strategies. The study, a survey, used a sample of 265 parents drawn from a population 863 academic and non-academic staff members of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State, Nigeria. Parental Knowledge and Intervention in Children’s Risky Experiences with Digital Media Questionnaire (PKICREDMQ), designed by the researchers, and successfully scaled through validity and reliability tests, was used to generate data. Findings revealed that the parents adopted mainly two mediation strategies – restrictive and active
Highlights
Today's generation of children is surrounded and immersed in the digital environment (Chassiakos et al 2016), which appears natural and smooth for the children (Goh, Bay, and Chen 2015)
The present study focuses on the extent to which parents mediate the digital media use of children with a view to mitigating the risky experiences associated with the use
In relation to the present study, the theory identifies active, restrictive, couse and technical parental mediation strategies as crucial tools used by parents to mediate children’s use of digital media so as to minimizing risks associated with the use
Summary
Today's generation of children is surrounded and immersed in the digital environment (Chassiakos et al 2016), which appears natural and smooth for the children (Goh, Bay, and Chen 2015). Market and technological innovations, children's use of digital media is active. The use is partly dependent on the child's social and demographic variables, and varies by location, equipment, and frequency of use (Bako and Tokes 2018). The use is associated with various risks. According to Bottino et al (2015), the digital space brings new risks and pressures for young people. As in traditional forms of bullying, exposure to cyberbullying is varied, such as the rapid creation and sharing of abusive messages and comments, the spread of rumours, the exclusion of victims from online groups and various other harassments
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