Parental mediation of children’s digital media use in high digital penetration countries: perspectives from Singapore and Australia

ABSTRACT

This research examines how parents in two high digital penetration nations in the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore and Australia, mediate children’s use of digital media and how parental mediation practices in each country are explained by parents’ media perception, digital literacy, and parental self-efficacy. We conducted surveys with parents residing in Singapore (N = 316) and Australia (N = 315). Results show that Australian parents are more actively engaged in all types of parental mediation as compared to Singaporean parents. In both countries, those who are concerned about risks associated with their children’s digital media use and those who feel confident in their parenting abilities are more likely to actively engage in all types of parental mediation. Findings also show that digitally literate parents are more prone to implement discussion-based mediation than control-based mediation.

KEYWORDS:

• Parental mediation
• Digital media
• Youth
• Cross-cultural comparison
• Singapore
• Australia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the University of Melbourne under its Faculty Research Grant Scheme. The funders had no role in the design, analysis or writing of this article.

Notes on contributors

Wonsun Shin

Wonsun Shin (PhD, University of Minnesota) is Associate Professor in Media and Communications at the School of Culture and Communication, the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on children and digital media, parental mediation, consumer socialization, and interactive marketing.

May O. Lwin

May O. Lwin (PhD, National University of Singapore) is President's Chair Professor at Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research focuses on strategic and health communication, cyber safety, parental mediation and privacy issues regarding children’s use of technology.