How families with young children are solving the dilemma between privacy and protection by building trust - A portrait from Portugal

ABSTRACT

Parents are the main mediators of the digital exposure and experiences of young children. When adopting a parental mediation style, they are challenged by a dilemma: protecting their children often means invading their privacy and restricting their options. The adopted parental mediation style is pondered according to the perceptions and experiences of parents regarding digital media; it is an ongoing and dynamic negotiation between the actions of parents and children. Our research focuses on mobile apps, since the favourite devices of young children are smartphones and tablets, in order to explore how parents and children select apps, and which criteria they use. Our fieldwork was conducted in Portugal and used a mixed method, combining an online survey to a purposive sample of 1955 parents of children under 8 years old, and separate interviews to parents and children under 8 to a purposive sample of 81 families. Our results reveal how parents are coping with contrasting perceptions on digital media and how they negotiate their parental mediation style in interaction with their children. Parents believe more in building trust than in restricting children, but when they find it necessary, their will to protect overcomes their respect for the children’s privacy.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital technologies
• digital media
• young children
• parental mediation
• perceptions
• privacy
• trust

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by CECC/CRC-W, Universidade Católica Portuguesa and by Centro Internet Segura, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia.

Notes on contributors

Patrícia Dias

Patrícia Dias is Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Human Sciences and researcher at the Research Centre for Communication and Culture Studies at the Catholic University of Portugal. Holding a PhD in Communication Sciences, her research interests are digital media, young children, mobile communication, marketing and public relations. She is the author of “Living in the Digital Society” (2014) and “The Mobile Phone and Daily Life” (2008).

Rita Brito

Rita Brito is an Assistant Professor in ISEC Lisboa, and teaches in Early Childhood Education Master. She holds a degree in Early Childhood Education, a PhD in Educational Technology and a post-doctoral research on the use of technologies by families and children up to 6 years old. Rita is a researcher at CRC-W, Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Rita’s research focuses on digital educational technology, children under 6 years old, Early Childhood Educators and Primary teachers training. She has published several journal and book articles in international journals and books. Rita is the author of “Familia.com” (2017).