Children's Use of ICT, Family Mediation, and Social Inequalities

Ferreira, E., Ponte, C., Castro, T. S. (2017). ICT and Gender: Parental Mediation Strategies, in SIIE 17 Simpósio Internacional de Informática Educativa, Lisboa, Portugal, Novembro 9-11 2017, pp. 135-140. Information and communication technologies (ICT) continues to be a highly gendered area of life in all socioeconomic and educational backgrounds, and a source of significant social inequality in enduring ways. Parental mediation strategies can regulate the benefits and risks of the ICT for children, and have a significant and lifelong impact on children's self-confidence and positive attitudes toward digital technologies. This paper aims to explore how does gender, of both parents and children, affects parent mediation strategies of children's media use, adopting a critical discourse perspective in which gender differences in ICT use are understood as a result of gender-technology and power-knowledge relations. We present a gender perspective on the results of the research 'Growing Up with Screens', conducted in Portugal which aims to explore the mediation practices of parents including the first generation of digital native parents with children aged 3 to 8 years old.

Intersections

This study explores parental mediation – its patterns, purpose and intention, the intentions behind it, and related social inequalities – from the perspective of the ideal of intensive parenting. Parental mediation in the form of restricting or monitoring teenagers’ technology use might mitigate the harm of the intensive or risky online behaviour. Moreover, active mediation strategies might improve the teenagers’ digital literacy by obtaining specific skills that foster appropriate online behaviour. Therefore, the paper argues that parental mediation has become a highly relevant aspect of contemporary parenting practices. The paper is based on thematic analyses of semi-structured interviews on children’s screen time and parental mediation strategies. The interviews were carried out with 29 parents of adolescents in Hungary in 2019. The findings show that restriction and active mediation primarily aimed at protecting children from risks, as a resource-intensive practice, form part of...

2005

Interviews with 52 parents of varying income levels and positions on the digital ‘‘access rainbow’’ are used to explore how parents discuss the widespread belief that ICT (information and communication technologies) access affects their children’s prospects for success. While all parents agreed that ICT competence is important, differences emerged along socioeconomic lines regarding how parents conceptualized the computer/success relationship. While upper-income parents demonstrated greater ICT proficiency and access and assumed that their children needed ICT proficiency for success, parents in the lower-income groups saw the need for ICT proficiency as more context-dependent and adopted broader definitions of success. All parents expressed concerns about the negative attributes of ICTs as entertainment rather than educational media; for lower- and middle-income families, however, this objection justified limits on use or access among children.

Critical Studies in Media Communication, 2005

Interviews with 52 parents of varying income levels and positions on the digital ''access rainbow'' are used to explore how parents discuss the widespread belief that ICT (information and communication technologies) access affects their children's prospects for success. While all parents agreed that ICT competence is important, differences emerged along socioeconomic lines regarding how parents conceptualized the computer/success relationship. While upper-income parents demonstrated greater ICT proficiency and access and assumed that their children needed ICT proficiency for success, parents in the lower-income groups saw the need for ICT proficiency as more context-dependent and adopted broader definitions of success. All parents expressed concerns about the negative attributes of ICTs as entertainment rather than educational media; for lower-and middle-income families, however, this objection justified limits on use or access among children.

2011

Informed by ‘critical’ approaches to ‘educational technology’, this paper aims to move away from presenting a ‘could’ and ‘should’ explanation of children learning with technology to a more nuanced, context-rich analyses of how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are being used by technologically privileged families at home. Here, a critical approach means locating the findings within a framework, which not only includes reference to the policies and politics of educational technology, but also takes account of uneven, contested, and contradictory uses of ICT in everyday family life. To achieve this, the paper presents accounts of technology use in situ from eight case families. The data reveal that although ICTs were purchased for their perceived educational potential, howparents and children approached and used them in the home for learning was entwined with many other dimensions of social life. The findings suggest that there is a need to move beyond one-dimensional debates, such as access to ICT ensures use, to more nuanced accounts that focus on the ‘messy’ realities of ICTs usage ‘as it happens’ in the home. In sum, more explicit empirically based information on ICT practices in the home need to be made available for policymakers and families.

As children access to the internet at ever younger ages, questions arise as to whether the use of touchscreens at home contributes to literacy and digital skills, and whether and how parents scaffold children's learning. To date, research on parental mediation has shown that parental expectations of the role of ICTs in their children's future, discourses of the opportunities and risks of the internet, and the everyday practices of media engagement all shape the ways in which children are socialised into using digital media at home. These expectations, worries and practices depend on parents' education, socioeconomic background, and parent-ing culture. This article builds on prior research by the authors with 70 families in seven European countries. We compare lower income/less educated families and higher income/more educated families as they promote or hinder children's (digital) literacy practices. We found that lower income families experience a genera-tional digital divide and feel less confident in scaffolding children's digital literacy practices. Instead, when parents use ICTs for work and/or are techno-enthusiasts, they are more engaged in children's online activities irrespective of their background. The approach towards digital play-as either a vehicle or an impediment to children's learning – is therefore indicative of different imaginaries around ICTs, different parenting styles and different mediation strategies.

This chapter reports on a study funded and coordinated by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (Chaudron et al. 2015) which aims to explore young children and their families’ experiences with digital technologies such as smartphones, tablets, computers and games. The project involved seven countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United Kingdom. In each country, interviews and observations were undertaken with ten families in their homes, each with a child aged between 6 and 7 and many with younger and older siblings. The project sought to examine young children’s access to and use of digital technologies and to explore how parents mediated this use. This chapter reports on the findings of the study that relate to the rules that parents do, or do not, impose in relation to children’s access to and use of technologies, reflecting on the effectiveness of parents’ mediation of children’s online practices, and their awareness of the risks/opportunities balance. In addition, the chapter considers children’s understanding and management of parental rules, analysing the kinds of negotiations they undertake with various family members that shape their engagement with technology. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the implications of the study for policy for this age group.

Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 2015

The aim of the special issue is to build upon existing knowledge concerning the mediation of children's use of digital technology. We sent out the call for abstracts in the Fall of 2014, with the goal of receiving submissions on the role of family members, peers, and teachers in mediating children's digital technology usage. Another goal was to receive submissions employing either child-centered, parentcentered, and teacher-centered approaches, or those utilizing cross-cultural perspectives. Therefore, we titled the special issue, "The Mediation of Children's Digital Technology Usage," a title we thought captured a broad approach to this topic. Cyber victimization and adjustment difficulties: The mediation of Chinese and American adolescents' digital technology usage Michelle F. Wright

Societies

Children and young people are often labelled the “digital generation”, naturally equipped with the skills to reap the benefits of digitised education, working life and communication through social media now and in the future. However, this age group’s use of information and communication technology (ICT) is not uniform, nor are the outcomes of their adaption to ICT. Shaped by their social environment and socioeconomic conditions, the potential benefits of children’s and young people’s ICT use may vary greatly, contributing to increased inequalities that exacerbate vulnerability for some while promoting health and well-being for others. This paper presents a protocol for conceptualising, systematically identifying and synthesising the literature on which conditions contribute to children and young people being negatively or positively impacted by their use of ICT. Here, children and young people are seen as social actors in four domains of their everyday lives illustrated through the...

How should one encourage " a positive and quality usage of ICT " among students? Earlier work (Lam, June 2016) suggests that both " school and family partnership theory " and " mediation philosophy " are the keys to parents changing their attitude towards the handling of child ICT usage. Even so, what are the stages or processes of these transformation? This study reviews four models and theories (as described later) which predict people's behavioural changes. Based on these, the author also recommends a " permeability model of changes " for depicting the parents' alteration actions. Therefore, one can provide assistance, also known as – systemic therapy, immediately during the different stages or levels of change in the model. Hence, parents can successfully change their behaviour towards processing children's ICT usage and in addition control these usage. Furthermore, this author also proposes that social, cultural and psychological factors of children's ICT usage constitute a step approaching the philosophy of Digital Equity. These enhance the aim of the present research by – ultimately urging " a positive and quality usage of ICT " (Yuen et al., 2014: p.13)among students. The poor academic effects of using ICT for entertainment can therefore be eliminated. As a result, one can improve the scholarly achievements of students by using educational technology and can also bridge the digital divide in education.