Abstract
Children are particularly vulnerable to the risks of going online, yet the profile of the child Internet user is becoming younger, particularly on social media. Parental mediation describes efforts by parents to translate the complexities of the physical/social environment as well as mass media into terms that children at various levels of cognitive development can understand. This exploratory study examined parental mediation strategies as predictors of parents’ intention to control underage use of Facebook in Singapore, a country with high internet penetration but little data protection regulation. The study found that parents with mediation styles that were highest on Regulated mediation (Restrictive and Selective mediation) as well as parents whose eldest child was female showed the highest level of intentions to control underage Facebook usage. Additionally, the younger the age group of the eldest child in the family, the more likely parents were to express intentions to control Facebook usage.
Highlights
1.1 Internet Risk & PrivacyChildren are vulnerable to the risks of going online-- a comprehensive study of children under age eighteen in the European Union (EU) found that sharing of personal information is the most common risky behavior among online teenagers, followed by online pornography, violent/hateful content, cyber bullying and meeting online contacts offline (Hasebrink, Livingstone, Haddon, & Olafsson, 2009; Livingstone & Bober, 2005; Livingstone & Haddon, 2009)
Children are vulnerable to the risks of going online, yet the profile of the child Internet user is becoming younger, on social media
The study found that parents with mediation styles that were highest on Regulated mediation (Restrictive and Selective mediation) as well as parents whose eldest child was female showed the highest level of intentions to control underage Facebook usage
Summary
Children are vulnerable to the risks of going online-- a comprehensive study of children under age eighteen in the European Union (EU) found that sharing of personal information is the most common risky behavior among online teenagers, followed by online pornography, violent/hateful content, cyber bullying and meeting online contacts offline (Hasebrink, Livingstone, Haddon, & Olafsson, 2009; Livingstone & Bober, 2005; Livingstone & Haddon, 2009). While prior research has addressed the influence of parental mediation strategies on children’s online behavior (Livingstone & Helsper, 2008; Paus-Hasebrink, Bauwens, Durager, & Ponte, 2013) and health risks (Lwin & Saw, 2007), there is little research on parenting strategies to protect underage children in social media platforms . This exploratory study addresses the issue by examining parental mediation strategies as predictors of parents’ intention to control underage use of Facebook in Singapore, a country with high internet penetration but little data protection regulation. Beyond privacy and data protection issues, research has shown that children using Facebook encounter risks such as bullying, harassment, exposure to harmful content, theft of personal information, sexual grooming, violent behavior, encouragement to self-harm, and racist attacks (Choo, 2009; UK Council for Child Internet Safety, 2010)
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