Factors that influence parents' strategies for mediation and control in children's digital education

Parental mediation is a strategy that influences how children use technology and is useful not only for preventing problem behaviors and conflict online (^{Matthes et al., 2021}), but also for providing learning opportunities and acquisition of critical skills (^{Sánchez-Valle et al., 2017}).

There is broad consensus in the literature on the identification of two main categories of parental styles (^{Chen & Chng, 2016}; ^{Livingstone et al., 2017}): enabling or active mediation, linked to positive use of technology, in which parents offer guidance and recommendations; and restrictive mediation, which controls children's activities through rules and limiting screen time. Along with these two types, ^{Smahel et al. (2020}) expanded the classification in the report EU Kids Online 2020, adding technical strategies (which involve parents using programs or mobile applications to control time, set tracking systems, apply filters, etc.), monitoring or tracking (tracing children's activities on various platforms), and inverse mediation strategies (where the children ask adults for help or intervention).

Nonetheless, studies have not produced conclusive results when it comes to establishing the ideal parental control style in children's digital education (^{Sánchez-Valle et al., 2017}). Results vary in terms of how the level of parental monitoring and supervision can play an important role in smartphone use (^{Chang et al., 2019}; ^{Shin & Li, 2017}). Some experts, such as ^{Kalmus et al. (2015}), believe that monitoring measures are more effective when children are younger and face unpleasant experiences online, reducing the harm they may be exposed to. These authors noted that parental mediation based on monitoring and tracking have notable effects in reducing the risk of cyberbullying. However, these types of measures have been criticized as being intrusive and potentially invading privacy (^{Symons et al. 2017}), as well as for holding to a reductionist view that focuses mainly on dangers, without considering alternatives such as active mediation (^{Shin & Lwin, 2016}). Active mediation encourages children's digital wellbeing through dialog, where parents assertively discuss the use of technology with their children, sharing activities online, and explaining how to deal with problematic or unexpected situations (^{Dedkova & Smahel, 2020}). Another reason for various authors to consider active mediation a suitable measure in digital education is because it improves children's understanding about technology, allowing them to improve their self-regulation with ICT and modeling healthier and more responsible coping skills (^{Dedkova & Smahel, 2020}).

Recent studies have noted various factors that influence the levels of parental mediation and control styles applied to the use of technology, particularly smartphones (^{Dedkova & Smahel, 2020}; ^{Geržičáková et al., 2022}; ^{Warren & Aloia, 2019}). The children's age is a key variable, families use more rules and are more inflexible with younger children than with adolescents (^{Glatz et al., 2018}; ^{Smahel et al., 2020}). The age of the parents is also an important aspect that affects how they regulate their children's online activities. The older the parents, the more lax the monitoring and control of their offspring, while younger parents tend to be more involved in support, guidance, and social interaction with their children (^{Livingstone et al. 2017}; ^{Padilla et al., 2015}; ^{Talves & Kalmus, 2015}).

Parents' socio-educational level is also an important factor affecting supervision. Recent studies have shown that variables such as parents' professional category and educational attainment influence the type of mediation they engage in around their children's use of smartphones and online consumption (^{Martínez et al., 2020}; ^{Ramírez-García et al., 2023}). More specifically, higher educational attainment and higher status employment increase the likelihood of applying diverse mechanisms for parental control and monitoring. This control is more commonly executed by mothers than fathers, which indicates women's significant role and responsibility in their children's digital education (^{Dedkova & Smahel, 2020}; ^{Jiménez-Morales et al., 2020}).

Gender has also been identified as an important variable if we focus on the child, as there is greater control over girls than boys, something that some authors have attributed to greater concern that girls may talk to strangers or fear of cyberbullying (^{Pastor Ruiz et al., 2019}; ^{Ramos-Soler et al., 2018}).

In addition, families' socio-economic status is associated with how much children are exposed to screens (^{Männikkö et al., 2020}). Parents from lower socio-economic backgrounds use fewer parental control strategies over their children's digital activities (^{Smahel et al., 2020}).

More recently, new research trends have been looking more deeply into parents' perceived lack of control due to children being hyper-connected. This entails a sense of resignation and frustration around the loss of control over the activities children engage in with their mobile devices (^{Charisi et al., 2022}).

Academics have also paid particular attention to parents' low levels of digital skills, time spent online, and excessive use of smartphones. These variables may have a notable impact on children developing problematic behaviors in their use of digital devices (^{Matthes et al., 2021}; ^{Schmuck et al., 2023}; ^{Yang et al., 2023}), with significant repercussions on their school lives, academic performance, and wellbeing (^{Eoh et al., 2022}).

As noted previously, children are gaining access to smartphones at increasingly younger ages (^{Andrade et al., 2021}; ^{Rideout & Roob, 2020}; ^{Sola et al., 2019}). However, most research has so far focused on the adolescent population (e.g., ^{Andrade et al., 2021}; ^{Smahel et al., 2020}). In addition, although recent years have seen the beginnings of analysis of the role families play in their children's digital education, compared to other lines of research, the results so far have been limited. Our current study aims to contribute to improving this theoretical corpus and the research in this field. More specifically, the objective of the study was to identify the parental control measures employed by parents over their primary-school-aged (6 to 12 years old) children's use of smartphones. The specific objectives were: 1) to determine the types of parental control mechanisms parents used to regulate what their children do with their smartphones, 2) to examine whether the parents' educational attainment was related to the level of parental control over the children's smartphone use, 3) to determine if there was a relationship between the amount of time children spent online each day and the level of parental control, and 4) to assess whether the primary school year the children were in influenced the number of parental control mechanisms used to regulate children's smartphone use.

Method

The study used a quantitative methodology. More specifically, an ex post facto, descriptive, transversal design via a survey (^{McMillan & Schumacher, 2005}).

Results

Discussion

Smartphones have become largely intrinsic and integral to family life. This means a significant challenge for parents, who are responsible for setting up mechanisms of parental mediation and control that not only help to avoid problems, but also provide a safe digital environment for their children, as well as seeking education based on critical, responsible use of the technology (^{Livingstone & Bloom-Ross, 2020}; ^{Sánchez-Valle et al., 2017}).

Bearing that in mind, the results of our study showed that 93.7% of parents used a variety of strategies to regulate their children's smartphone use, which shows the importance parents attach to setting guidelines on using these devices. The most commonly used mechanisms were limiting screen time, setting times for device use, and using passwords for smartphone access. The importance of parental mediation in digital society is also reflected by other studies, such as ^{Condeza et al. (2019}) in Chile, where a large proportion of surveyed parents showed that the main parental mediation practices in Information and communications technology (ICT) use included checking what their children did on the internet (89.7%) and using applications to block what they felt was inappropriate content (63.7%).

Our study was able to identify various factors that affect the extent of parental control, such as parents' educational attainment, how long the children spend online on their smartphones, and what year the children are in at school. More specifically, and in line with previous research (^{Jiménez-Morales et al., 2020}), greater parental educational attainment increases the likelihood of using various parental mediation and control measures, with the educational level of the parents being closely related to their digital competence, which is another predictor of mediation (^{Dedkova & Smahel, 2020}). In this regard, greater levels of digital self-efficacy in the parents mean putting different types of mediation actions into practice, including those involving control and tracking (^{Nikken & Schols, 2015}; ^{Talves & Kalmus, 2015}).

This alerts us to a digital socio-educational divide, which is why it should be a priority to provide digital skilling to all families, especially those in vulnerable situations. In line with this, other studies (^{Glatz et al., 2018}) have reported that parents educational levels are positively related to all of the strategies that they use to mediate their children's online activity, except for active mediation. Those authors noted that when parents used mediation strategies they were able to gain a deeper understanding of the possible risks their children faced online, and that this understanding could be linked to the perception of how much influence they had over their children's online activity.

Our results in relation to how long children spend connected each day show that there was a significant relationship between the number of hours children were online via smartphone each day and the level of parental control. Children whose parents used more parental control mechanisms tended to use their smartphones for less time that children whose parents were less strict in applying controls. A recent study by ^{Álvarez et al. (2020}) concluded that the time children spent in front of screens had negative effects on the development of their social skills, which shows how important it is for families to monitor times and establish certain strategies to control screen time. However, it is also important not to demonize or focus solely on risks and possible harm that might come to children from irresponsible smartphone use, as these devices also offer notable educational, cultural, and communicative potential (^{Criollo-C et al., 2002}). It is a technology that also offers applications where children can, among other things, develop their creativity, improve their digital skills, forge their own identities, and project their own personalities and concerns. As ^{Martín-Ramallal and Ruiz-Mondaza (2022}) put it, “Minors must enjoy all rights and freedoms, and they must be provided with guarantees for their self-realisation” (p. 31). From this point of view, the family's role is key in providing active measures (not only restrictive, control, or tracking measures) that reinforce the child's autonomy and personal growth within a framework of trans-media literacy.

Finally, we found that parents applied more control mechanisms to children aged 10 to 12 years old, in the final years of primary education (5th and 6th years). In line with this, the study by ^{Glatz et al. (2018}) identified the school year (as an indicator of age) as a variable that was correlated to the level of parental mediation, with parents of adolescent children in later school years (17 and 18 years old) taking fewer control-based mediation actions compared to the higher level of monitoring parents did of children in lower school years (11 to 12 years old). The study by ^{Smahel et al. (2020}) similarly noted that families used more rules and were more inflexible with younger children than adolescents. This may be because of greater respect for older children's privacy and autonomy, who are also considered to be more digitally competent (^{López-De-Ayala et al., 2019}; ^{Ramos-Soler et al., 2018}) and therefore supposedly able to avoid negative consequences of their smartphone or digital device use (^{Rodríguez-de-Dios et al., 2018}; ^{Sonck & de Haan, 2014}).

It is clear that parental mediation is a reality for families, evidence of a growing social concern. However, children's digital education must include measures of co-responsibility that incorporate schools, public administrations, and the companies that design the technology; and it must have the children's active participation in the process (^{Livingstone & Bloom-Ross, 2020}). Similarly, educating parents in the skills needed to properly use these technologies is crucial (^{Condeza et al., 2019}). This will allow them to positively assess the technology's benefits, not just its risks, make decisions about parental styles to apply and, in short, more effectively guide their children's development towards autonomy in a hyperconnected world.