“It’s really difficult. We’ve only got each other to talk to.” Monitoring, mediation, and good parenting in Australia in the digital age

ABSTRACT

Discursively constructed norms about “good” parenting have long tasked parents with monitoring their children’s activities to ensure their safety. Yet contemporary digital media complicate the task of the good parent who is expected to not only know where their children are and what they’re doing, but also what they’re doing online and with digital media. This article draws on qualitative research with forty Australian parents of teenagers to determine the various ways that parents monitored and acquired knowledge about their children’s online activities. Five primary techniques were identified: 1) physical observation; 2) digital surveillance; 3) trust-based and discursive strategies; 4) restriction and control through social or technical means, and 5) talking with other parents. This article contributes to parental mediation literature by exploring what parents know about their children’s online activities, and how they acquire those knowledges. This article points to a number of challenges experienced by parents in monitoring and mediating their children’s online activities, and argues that parents are defaulting to trust-based and discursive strategies as other forms of mediation fail.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital media
• parenting
• parental mediation
• parental monitoring
• parental knowledges
• parental anxieties

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. These general knowledges obtained from other parents are distinct from the specific knowledges gleaned from third parties documented above under the category of surveillance. These general knowledges relate to risks, tips and information more generally, whereas the third-party knowledges documented earlier refer to knowledge about the activities of their own child.

2. MA15+ is an Australian classification category which restricts content to “Mature Adults” aged 15 and over.

3. GTA stands for Grand Theft Auto, a video game series known for strong violence and sexual content, and which was given an R18+ rating in Australia, restricting it to adults 18 and over.

Additional information

Funding

This research was undertaken with the support of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.

Notes on contributors

Catherine Page Jeffery

Catherine Page Jeffery is a lecturer in communication and media at the University of Canberra. Her research examines parental anxieties and perspectives regarding their children’s digital media use. She used to work in media regulation and cyber safety education.