Regulating Systems, Internet

As regulating systems, mediation strategies have been applied to both newer and older media. Although more traditional media, such as television, have been the subject of much research from the early 1990s through the 2000s, there has been a dearth of information on newer media such as the Internet. Because of its ever-changing and interactive nature, the Internet becomes more complex and challenging to regulate by governmental policies, and parents bear more responsibility to monitor online activities at home.

The strategies employed by parents to manage their children’s media use are called “parental mediation.” Up to the mid-2000s, with the exception of a few projects led by Matthew Eastin at The University of Texas at Austin, research on parental mediation had mostly focused on mediation strategies related to television content. This line of research had identified three main strategies: co-viewing, active, and restrictive. Co-viewing (or co-using) refers to consumption when a parent is present while the child is engaged with the media. This shared experience, however, does not include comments or discussions about the content. This strategy has been criticized by scholars because the lack of communication by parents functions as a silent endorsement of experienced material. Active mediation consists of discussing, interpreting, and making value judgments with the child about media content (e.g., “The characters in this show are too violent”). Restrictive techniques include the implementation of rules that restrict the content, location, and time of use. For example, complete restriction of a show or allowing only one hour of media consumption per day represent restrictive methods employed by parents.

The Internet, however, operates differently from television. Although the aforementioned broad mediation strategies are still used, the regulating systems employed by parents have evolved to meet the challenges posed by the web. For example, co-using the computer implies a more active parental role than co-viewing television because sitting in front of the computer screen leads to more parent–child discussions. In addition, the Internet has allowed the implementation of two types of restrictive strategies: social and technical. Social rules include restrictions of activities, location, and time of use (e.g., parents control the amount of time the child is online; parents require password information or that they and their children be Facebook friends), while technical restrictions include the use of more sophisticated software programs that filter out unwanted content. Finally, parents can also track their children’s online activities after they use the Internet.

Despite these techniques available to regulate Internet content, the web poses new challenges to [Page 321]parental mediation. First, parents have to continually balance between protecting their children from media-related risks and maximizing the benefits provided by new technologies such as the Internet. Second, families increasingly have more media devices in the household, particularly in bedrooms, limiting the opportunities of parents to monitor (i.e., co-use) their children’s online activities. Third, children need to use the Internet for schoolwork; thus, it is harder to implement restrictions to online activities and time of use. Finally, children generally have greater digital skills and are more knowledgeable about the Internet than their parents. Therefore, often the lack of digital skills prevents parents from implementing mediation strategies. For example, parents have asserted that the electronic tracking of their children’s online activities is hard to follow and that the implementation of filter programs is burdensome. At the same time, children find ways to circumvent parental control efforts.

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