Adolescents Encountering Online Risks: Characteristics of Parental Mediation

Abstract

New ways of life in the digital world create a special social situation of development of the child, which is characterized by a decrease in the universality and dominance of the adult in the parent-child relationships in online contexts. Nevertheless, children and adolescents still desperately need the support of adults, especially of their parents, to master new online opportunities as well as to cope with online risks. The paper presents data from two studies carried out in 2013 and in 2018 and attempts to compare some of the knowledge and abilities of the parents that they had as assistants and experts helping their children to explore the Internet. These studies were conducted in 8 federal districts of the Russian Federation on the following samples: in 2013 — 1203 adolescents aged 12—17 and 1209 parents; in 2018 — 1554 adolescents aged 12—17 and 1105 parents. The paper traces the changes in the digital portraits of modern parents as Internet users, focusing, in particular, on their awareness of their children’s encounters with online risks and on the dynamics of parental mediation strategies concerning the use of the Internet. There is a clear tendency to reduce the digital gap between the Russian adolescents and their parents which is expressed both in the increasing digital activity of the parents and in their concern with establishing and maintaining close relationships with the children in the context of their Internet activity.

Keywords

• digital socialization
• parent-child relationships
• online risks
• parental mediation
• user activity
• digital competency