Parenting in the digital age – empowering Dutch parents with a practical screen guide

Remember doctor Spock? No not the one from Star Trek, but the author of The Common Sense Book about Baby & Child Care. Since 1946 millions of copies sold all over the world, because it gave practical and validated information to parents on health issues, and daily hassles and parenting concerns, nicely organised by topic and the child’s development. For www.parenting.digital, Professor Peter Nikken (Windesheim) talks about his new Spock-inspired book offering an overview of how contemporary media affect children at different stages of their development, paired with practical advice for parents. What can you advise parents when they are wondering about the pros and cons of VR headsets for a child, if it is bad when teens watch sexual materials, and what to do when their child wants to become a professional YouTuber

On media, children, and their parents

A lecture given on the occasion of the public acceptance of the appointment as extraordinary professor of Children, Media, and Parental Mediation in the Department of Media and Communication at the Erasmus School of History, Culture, and Communication, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, on Thursday 9 June, 2011. Summary: Children nowadays live in a media-rich environment, which can make parenting a daunting task. This inaugural lecture discusses three aspects of parental mediation of children’s media use. First, a sketch of the media saturated world of children is presented, because that is the media situation parents have to act on. It is concluded that, although several surveys on children’s media use in Europe exist, none of them gives a complete overview of the media ownership and use by children from early infancy until early adolescence. Therefore, a new media monitor is proposed. Next, the research on parental mediation is reviewed. It is argued that despite the many studies done so far, we still have little knowledge on how and when parents guide their children when using the media. Especially studies on the effectiveness of parental mediation and on the mediation of children that are more at risk and very young children are lacking. Finally, it is argued that parents are in need of formal and informal forms of parenting support, which they can get from various sources. The information given by institutional sources with regard to parental mediation, however, in the Netherlands often is not validated or evidence-based, because the professionals are not yet well informed about children, media, and parental mediation

Guiding young children’s internet use at home

Using an online questionnaire among 785 parents (children 0-7 years) in the Netherlands we investigated a) whether parents experience problems when guiding children’s digital media usage, b) whether they feel competent in dealing with these problems, c) whether they need parenting support, and d) how these problems, competences and need for support are related to the characteristics of the parents, the family and the child. The analyses reveal that the parents’ experiences of problems is associated with negative views on media effects, the presence of older siblings living at home and occur especially when their child is active on social media. Parents’ feelings of competence are enhanced by positive views on media effects, older children being present in the home, and the involvement of the young child in educational games and media skill level. Parents feel less confident if their child is active on social media. Support is primarily dependent on the level of problems at hand. Moreover, professionals are consulted especially when parents feel less competent, their child is active on social media and no older siblings are present at home. Parents ask family or friends for advice when they have a negative view on media effects

Parents’ Instrumental use of Media in Childrearing: Relationships with Confidence in Parenting, and Health and Conduct Problems in Children

Using an online questionnaire among 516 Dutch parents (children between 1 and 12 years; 68% mothers, 18% single parents) this study explored whether parents see media devices as useful tools in childrearing, and how parent-family characteristics and parental perceptions on parenting, media effects and child development predict the acceptance of instrumental media use. Findings revealed that parents saw media as a) a distractor providing the parent relief in childrearing, b) a babysitter when the parent is unavailable, and c) a tool to modify children’s behavior. Whereas 20 to 30 percent found media useful as a modifier or babysitter, only about 10 percent perceived media helpful as a distractor. Acceptance of the different types of instrumental media use depended more on parental perceptions than on parent-family variables: i.e., instrumental use of media was primarily endorsed by parents who are less confident about their parenting, have less support from a partner, expect positive effects from the media, and report health and conduct problems in their children

How and Why Parents Guide the Media Use of Young Children

Abstract Children use electronic screens at ever younger ages, but there is still little empirical research on howand why parents mediate this media use. In line with Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, we explored whether children’s media skills and media activities, next to parents’ attitudes about media for children, and several child and parent-family characteristics, predicted parental mediation practices. Furthermore, we investigated children’s use and ownership of electronic screens in the bedroomin relationship to the child’s media skills. Data from an online survey among 896 Dutch parents with young children (0–7 years) showed that children’s use and ownership of TV, game consoles, computers and touchscreens, primarily depended on their media skills and age, not on parent’s attitudes about media for children. Only touchscreens were used more often by children, when parents perceived media as helpful in providing moments of rest for the child. In line with former studies, parents consistently applied co-use, supervision, active mediation, restrictive mediation, and monitoring, depending on positive and negative attitudes about media. The child’s media skills andmedia activities, however, had stronger relationshipswith parental mediation styles, whereas age was not related. Canonical discriminant analysis, finally, captured how the five mediation strategies varied among infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and early childhood children, predominantly as a result of children’s media skills, and media activities, i.e., playing educational games and passive entertainment use

Zero to eight : young children and their internet use

EU Kids Online has spent seven years investigating 9-16 year olds’ engagement with the internet, focusing on the benefits and risks of children’s internet use. While this meant examining the experiences of much younger children than had been researched before EU Kids Online began its work in 2006, there is now a critical need for information about the internet-related behaviours of 0-8 year olds. EU Kids Online’s research shows that children are now going online at a younger and younger age, and that young children’s “lack of technical, critical and social skills may pose [a greater] risk” (Livingstone et al, 2011, p. 3).peer-reviewe

Correction to: Parents’ Instrumental use of Media in Childrearing: Relationships with Confidence in Parenting, and Health and Conduct Problems in Children

Using an online questionnaire among 516 Dutch parents (children between 1 and 12 years; 68% mothers, 18% single parents) this study explored whether parents see media devices as useful tools in childrearing, and how parent-family characteristics and parental perceptions on parenting, media effects and child development predict the acceptance of instrumental media use. Findings revealed that parents saw media as a) a distractor providing the parent relief in childrearing, b) a babysitter when the parent is unavailable, and c) a tool to modify children’s behavior. Whereas 20 to 30 percent found media useful as a modifier or babysitter, only about 10 percent perceived media helpful as a distractor. Acceptance of the different types of instrumental media use depended more on parental perceptions than on parent-family variables: i.e., instrumental use of media was primarily endorsed by parents who are less confident about their parenting, have less support from a partner, expect positive effects from the media, and report health and conduct problems in their children