Parenting the Online Child

Abstract

Children are now living in a multi-media world (Livingstone, 2007) where the online world in particular has its own unique set of risks, such as cyberbullying, grooming, and invasion of privacy (Hasebrink et al., 2009). These online risks bring new parental concerns. Consequently, there has been a host of research which has focused on parental mediation strategies aimed at enhancing children’s experiences of the online world while minimising potential risks. For example, Duerager and Livingstone (2012) show that various different strategies are used by parents across Europe to promote safe use of the Internet. For example, 96% of parents of 9 to 12 years olds report that they do not allow their child to give out personal information to others online and 85% talk to their child about what they do online. It is therefore important to understand what strategies parents are using, what other factors might be related to the degree of use of these strategies and how effective these strategies are at optimising children’s online experiences. This chapter will first discuss theoretical perspectives on categorising parental mediation of children’s Internet use, looking at two different approaches. The focus will then turn to factors which have been found to be associated with the levels and types of strategies used by different parents.