**1. Introduction**

Children's experiences with digital technologies actually involve an increasing quote of young users (also defined as "digital natives") who are born and are developing in environments in which new digital technologies are widely available [1]. This currently occurs from early infancy, due to the rapid diffusion of touchscreen devices among younger children (or "touch generation"; [2, 3]). Children aged 2–4 years actually are able to use touchscreen devices, such as tablets or smartphones, to play or watch movies, and often parents themselves introduce kids to use them in boring social situations (i.e., in the pediatrician's waiting rooms or in the restaurant; [4]). On the basis of the most recent report on worldwide diffusion of the Internet among young people [1], one in three users is estimated to be a child or teenager (under 18). Generally children use digital technologies in their home, particularly younger children, with intense and prolonged activities especially on

weekends. Children often use their digital technologies at school at least a day a week (almost 30% among 9–11 years), although it is prohibited in many countries by school regulations. The access to digital technologies is expanding among young generations, even if many inequalities of resources remain between developed or developing countries [1]: for example, it has been estimated that in Africa (Ghana) children mainly use 0.9 mobile devices to connect to the Internet, against 2.9 in South America (Chile) or 2.6 in Europe (Italy). Similarly, only 12% of children in Africa (Ghana), 21% in the Philippines, and 26% in Albania can connect to the Internet at school, against 63–54% of children in other South America or European countries, such as Argentina, Uruguay, or Bulgaria. This reality raises several questions on how to guarantee the young generations the opportunities offered by new technologies (for studying, enhancing skills, socializing, etc.), protecting them from potential dangers of digitalized world (i.e., contacts with unknown people, exposure to violent/pornographic contents, etc.). In fact, although children grow in a reality permeated by new media, they are not automatically "digitally literate," that is, able to juggle the digital world and to reflect on it. Studies show that not only young users, but also teenager users "have difficulties in finding, managing and evaluating information, managing their privacy online and ensuring their online personal safety […]and may thus vary in their digital skills" ([5], p. 186).

Together with their children, parents themselves are largely exposed to media experiences in many fields of their life. Digital technologies have quickly changed the way in which family members communicate, enjoy themselves, acquire information, and solve daily problems. Parents are also the first mediators of children's experiences with digital tools: they have the task of integrating their use into ordinary routines (play, entertainment, learning, mealtime, etc.), promoting constructive and safety uses. *Digital parenting* describes parental efforts and practices for comprehending, supporting, and regulating children's activities in digital environments. A growing research on digital parenting identified the main approaches that can allow parents to "mediate" children's activities with digital technologies [6–8]. According to Vygotsky's theory of child development and his concept of *proximal development zone* [9], parental mediation can be considered a key aspect in facilitating the interactions between children and new media. The proximal development zone is an intermediate area between what the child is able to do alone and what he/ she can learn thanks to the guidance of others. In the course of a shared activity, the support and the help are adapted so that the child can improve his/her skills and gradually assume responsibility for acting alone. However, the activities that take place in the *virtual environments* of the web, unlike the experiences in the *real* environments, can reverse the relationship between the competent person (the adult) and the learner (the child). Today's children have an early, almost "intuitive" approach to digital technologies, so in some cases they can become active agents towards their parents. When children's knowledge and digital competence (e.g., functions/benefits of a new app) overcome that of parents, many shared experiences can be child-initiated, and children can also perform some forms of support and digital teaching to parents. This *reverse socialization* [10] seems to be a peculiar feature of digital experiences, and it poses new challenges to parental role. Reverse socialization describes all situations where children possess a better understanding or more advanced skills than adults. This gap between generations is more marked in low-income families or low-educated parents who possess limited resources and access to digital technologies [11]. However, over the past years, many parents have developed adequate knowledge and technical skills to share digital experiences with their children [3, 12]; they appreciate benefits of the web and strive to comprehend its complexity.

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*Digital Parenting: Raising and Protecting Children in Media World*

A common difficulty that parents actually encounter derives from the diffusion of "portable" devices (smartphone and tablet) that children start to use in early infancy (under the age of 2; [13]). Later, due to unlimited Wi-Fi access and enhanced connectivity, children insert activities with mobile devices into many daily routines, for example, during mealtime, school homework, conversations with parents, or before sleeping [14]. Particularly, parents worry about the "pervasiveness" (or ubiquitous) of mobile technologies in daily activities [15], and they fear that an effective guidance and control over them may decrease. Studies with large samples of young digital users (9–16 years old) in many European countries have compared parents' opinions before (*2010 Eu Kids Online Survey*; [12]) and after (*Net Children Go Mobile*; [3]) the diffusion of mobile devices. After 4 years, many parents declare that they know less about their children's online activities and have more difficulties to closely monitor children's usage (e.g., time spent connected). Interestingly, parents now are more aware of the risks of using the web [16], and they prefer to talk to children about Internet security (e.g., do not leave personal data online or block unknown people) rather than limiting or prohibiting Internet use [17]. Parents can encourage or limit the use of digital technologies to children according to the opportunities or danger they attribute to them. Since parents themselves are regular, sometimes enthusiastic, users of digital media, their digital skills and confidence and daily frequency of usage (or overuse; [18]), together with beliefs about digital world [3], are all crucial factors that researchers have begun to

Each parent has beliefs, that is, convictions and personal opinions, regarding the usage of media by children, such as their usefulness or damage, or the age at which children should use them. Beliefs are the cognitive dimension of attitudes, guiding individual's behavior and choices. When parents raise their children, they act and make choices for them following their own perceptions of what is desirable or what they positively value for their child's development [19]. Although parents are not always aware of their beliefs, these influence parent-child interaction and the child's opportunity to learn, do experiences [20], and develop digital skills [5]. Parental beliefs are important aspects of parenting and family microsystem, together with factors such as parent's history and education, socioeconomic status, and culture. Parents possess personal ideas about modern technologies: they can be considered a source of entertainment/relaxation or a learning tool [21, 22]; conversely, for other people, PC, tablet, and smartphone can be harmful to children's health (such as sleep problems, obesity, etc.; [23]), for social risks (such as contacts with unfamiliar or social isolation; [24]), or because they interfere with parent-child activities

A qualitative study [26] shows that parents have more pessimistic (70.55%) than optimistic opinions (29.45%) on the Internet use by primary school children: for example, parents worry about the excessive time spent online, the interference in face-to-face conversation, or that children lack of skills and maturity in dealing with some contents suitable for older children (such as violence, sex, or drug-related contents). Other worries concern negative consequences on learning and academic performance (i.e., reduced attention span), physical development (i.e., prolonged sedentary activities), social skills and peer interactions (i.e., fewer opportunities to "learn to play together"), and child's well-being (i.e., using smartphone to overcome boredom). Interestingly, many parents fear losing control over their children's online

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92579*

explore systematically.

**2. Parental beliefs**

and time spent together [25].

*Digital Parenting: Raising and Protecting Children in Media World DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92579*

A common difficulty that parents actually encounter derives from the diffusion of "portable" devices (smartphone and tablet) that children start to use in early infancy (under the age of 2; [13]). Later, due to unlimited Wi-Fi access and enhanced connectivity, children insert activities with mobile devices into many daily routines, for example, during mealtime, school homework, conversations with parents, or before sleeping [14]. Particularly, parents worry about the "pervasiveness" (or ubiquitous) of mobile technologies in daily activities [15], and they fear that an effective guidance and control over them may decrease. Studies with large samples of young digital users (9–16 years old) in many European countries have compared parents' opinions before (*2010 Eu Kids Online Survey*; [12]) and after (*Net Children Go Mobile*; [3]) the diffusion of mobile devices. After 4 years, many parents declare that they know less about their children's online activities and have more difficulties to closely monitor children's usage (e.g., time spent connected). Interestingly, parents now are more aware of the risks of using the web [16], and they prefer to talk to children about Internet security (e.g., do not leave personal data online or block unknown people) rather than limiting or prohibiting Internet use [17]. Parents can encourage or limit the use of digital technologies to children according to the opportunities or danger they attribute to them. Since parents themselves are regular, sometimes enthusiastic, users of digital media, their digital skills and confidence and daily frequency of usage (or overuse; [18]), together with beliefs about digital world [3], are all crucial factors that researchers have begun to explore systematically.

## **2. Parental beliefs**

*Parenting - Studies by an Ecocultural and Transactional Perspective*

safety […]and may thus vary in their digital skills" ([5], p. 186).

Together with their children, parents themselves are largely exposed to media experiences in many fields of their life. Digital technologies have quickly changed the way in which family members communicate, enjoy themselves, acquire information, and solve daily problems. Parents are also the first mediators of children's experiences with digital tools: they have the task of integrating their use into ordinary routines (play, entertainment, learning, mealtime, etc.), promoting constructive and safety uses. *Digital parenting* describes parental efforts and practices for comprehending, supporting, and regulating children's activities in digital environments. A growing research on digital parenting identified the main approaches that can allow parents to "mediate" children's activities with digital technologies [6–8]. According to Vygotsky's theory of child development and his concept of *proximal development zone* [9], parental mediation can be considered a key aspect in facilitating the interactions between children and new media. The proximal development zone is an intermediate area between what the child is able to do alone and what he/ she can learn thanks to the guidance of others. In the course of a shared activity, the support and the help are adapted so that the child can improve his/her skills and gradually assume responsibility for acting alone. However, the activities that take place in the *virtual environments* of the web, unlike the experiences in the *real* environments, can reverse the relationship between the competent person (the adult) and the learner (the child). Today's children have an early, almost "intuitive" approach to digital technologies, so in some cases they can become active agents towards their parents. When children's knowledge and digital competence (e.g., functions/benefits of a new app) overcome that of parents, many shared experiences can be child-initiated, and children can also perform some forms of support and digital teaching to parents. This *reverse socialization* [10] seems to be a peculiar feature of digital experiences, and it poses new challenges to parental role. Reverse socialization describes all situations where children possess a better understanding or more advanced skills than adults. This gap between generations is more marked in low-income families or low-educated parents who possess limited resources and access to digital technologies [11]. However, over the past years, many parents have developed adequate knowledge and technical skills to share digital experiences with their children [3, 12]; they appreciate benefits of the web and strive to comprehend

weekends. Children often use their digital technologies at school at least a day a week (almost 30% among 9–11 years), although it is prohibited in many countries by school regulations. The access to digital technologies is expanding among young generations, even if many inequalities of resources remain between developed or developing countries [1]: for example, it has been estimated that in Africa (Ghana) children mainly use 0.9 mobile devices to connect to the Internet, against 2.9 in South America (Chile) or 2.6 in Europe (Italy). Similarly, only 12% of children in Africa (Ghana), 21% in the Philippines, and 26% in Albania can connect to the Internet at school, against 63–54% of children in other South America or European countries, such as Argentina, Uruguay, or Bulgaria. This reality raises several questions on how to guarantee the young generations the opportunities offered by new technologies (for studying, enhancing skills, socializing, etc.), protecting them from potential dangers of digitalized world (i.e., contacts with unknown people, exposure to violent/pornographic contents, etc.). In fact, although children grow in a reality permeated by new media, they are not automatically "digitally literate," that is, able to juggle the digital world and to reflect on it. Studies show that not only young users, but also teenager users "have difficulties in finding, managing and evaluating information, managing their privacy online and ensuring their online personal

**128**

its complexity.

Each parent has beliefs, that is, convictions and personal opinions, regarding the usage of media by children, such as their usefulness or damage, or the age at which children should use them. Beliefs are the cognitive dimension of attitudes, guiding individual's behavior and choices. When parents raise their children, they act and make choices for them following their own perceptions of what is desirable or what they positively value for their child's development [19]. Although parents are not always aware of their beliefs, these influence parent-child interaction and the child's opportunity to learn, do experiences [20], and develop digital skills [5]. Parental beliefs are important aspects of parenting and family microsystem, together with factors such as parent's history and education, socioeconomic status, and culture.

Parents possess personal ideas about modern technologies: they can be considered a source of entertainment/relaxation or a learning tool [21, 22]; conversely, for other people, PC, tablet, and smartphone can be harmful to children's health (such as sleep problems, obesity, etc.; [23]), for social risks (such as contacts with unfamiliar or social isolation; [24]), or because they interfere with parent-child activities and time spent together [25].

A qualitative study [26] shows that parents have more pessimistic (70.55%) than optimistic opinions (29.45%) on the Internet use by primary school children: for example, parents worry about the excessive time spent online, the interference in face-to-face conversation, or that children lack of skills and maturity in dealing with some contents suitable for older children (such as violence, sex, or drug-related contents). Other worries concern negative consequences on learning and academic performance (i.e., reduced attention span), physical development (i.e., prolonged sedentary activities), social skills and peer interactions (i.e., fewer opportunities to "learn to play together"), and child's well-being (i.e., using smartphone to overcome boredom). Interestingly, many parents fear losing control over their children's online behaviors. Conversely, the positive beliefs concern positive effects of digital technologies on child's entertainment, communication and learning, access to information, and enhancing of child's skills (such as brain functioning, self-regulation, autonomy, critical attitude, etc.).

Other researchers [27] explored parent's perceptions about positive (i.e., they are shared by generations) or negative impact (i.e., they expose family privacy to risks) of social media—such as Facebook or WhatsApp—on family open communication. Teenagers are intensely involved in social media use, but adults also are regular users. On the one hand, parents use social networks to communicate; on the other hand, they fear that they negatively impact family relationships, for example, through the phubbing phenomenon (i.e., ignoring someone or interrupting a conversation or mealtime to check the smartphone). Authors found that parents' perceptions are a meditational variable between the collective family efficacy (i.e., the perceived efficacy to manage family relationships, to support each other, etc.) and the openness of communication: "it is not only the actual impact of social media on family systems that matters but also parents' perceptions about it and how much they feel able to manage their children's social media use without damaging their family relationships" (p. 1).

Parental beliefs may influence the degree to which parents give opportunities or restrict their children's media use, but beliefs should not be considered the "cause" of behavior towards children. Researches show that parents' positive beliefs (e.g., "the tablet improves reading skills") are associated with favorable attitudes, co-using approach, communication, or suggestions to enhance their child's appropriate use of the Internet [28]. For example, when parents think that smartphones are useful tools (i.e., they promote child's intelligence and knowledge), they more often allow their preschool children to use them (i.e., at the restaurant), and children become regular users, spending more time (at least 2 h a day) with smartphone activities [29]. Conversely, parents who attribute negative effects to digital media tend to limit activities to children (i.e., put time limits or react for smartphone overuse); in turn, these restrictive behaviors can influence how much the children use these devices [28]. Therefore, the influences of parental beliefs on child's behaviors are not directed, but they are mediated by parental practices and other factors such as parental education or involvement with mobile device ("attachment"; see, e.g., [30]) that can intervene.

## **3. Parental media competence and self-efficacy**

Parental beliefs include also self-efficacy [31, 32], that is, parent's sense of competence in their own digital skills and in managing their children's technology usage. An example of parental self-referent estimation of competence is "I won't bother setting parental controls or passwords because my kids will "hack" around them" (cfr. [33]). In many studies, parental self-efficacy is positively associated with active parental practices: when parents feel confident about their Internet skills, they more often are involved in or monitor their children's media activities [6]. Recently Shin [34] distinguishes general self-efficacy (the confidence to be a good parent; [35]) from two self-efficacy domains assessing parental beliefs more strictly related to digital tasks: parental "media competency" in using media technology (such as sending/receiving email with a smartphone) and "perceived control over mediation strategies" (the degree to which the parent feels to be able to guide or modify their children's behaviors on smartphone). All these domains of parenting self-efficacy are associated with each other [34], suggesting that perceived competence on their own digital skills can positively influence parents' involvement with children (e.g., discussing about smartphone use).

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children [8].

*Digital Parenting: Raising and Protecting Children in Media World*

**4. Parenting approaches in children's digital engagement**

Sanders et al. [33] found that when parents are confident to have adequate digital

skills, they more often intervene (i.e., with rules and reinforcement strategies) with their children. Parental self-efficacy also influences parental opinions about technologies and how they talk about them with children [33]. Moreover, parental perception of influence in managing technologies decreased with preadolescents that generally are seen as more self-regulated and reluctant to the parental control than younger children. These findings suggest the importance to recognize the influence of child characteristics (such as age, technology usage, perceived competence,

Initially studies on parental engagement in children's activities with media assumed as theoretical basis the traditional parenting styles [36, 37]. According to Darling and Steinberg [38], parenting styles are defined as the context (or *emotive climate*) in which parents raise and socialize their children, and they are distinct from *practices*, that is, the distinct actions contingent to the child's behavior (e.g., scolding when the child uses the smartphone during mealtime). As it is well known, two main dimensions of the parent's behaviors, and their natural variations along a continuum, describe the styles: responsiveness/warmth (involvement, acceptance, and affect that the parent expresses towards the child's needs) and demandingness/ control (rules, control, and maturity expectations for the child's socialization). Parenting styles derive from the combination of these variable dimensions: authoritative parenting (high warmth and high control, e.g., parents listen to the child's wishes, but they put clear limits to the child's behaviors); laissez-faire parenting (low warmth and low control; the parents are detached from the needs expressed by the child; they did not give rules or limits to child's behavior); authoritarian parenting (low warmth and high control; parents expect the child to obey; they neither discuss nor listen to the child's opinions and can react with harsh discipline); and permissive parenting (high warmth and low control; parents are very affectionate, but they lack in guidance through rules and give few limits to the child's behavior). Studies that applied these "classic" parenting styles to children's behaviors with new communication media did not provide convincing results [39]. As an alternative to the "broad" parenting styles, a description of specific *media-related practices* is more useful in empirical studies for exploring the link between parental behaviors and child outcomes (e.g., time spent online). Therefore, researchers strove to identify the key dimensions of parental warmth/control more strictly referred to children's behaviors on the Internet or new media (**Table 1**). These Internet parenting styles are more strictly linked to children's actual use of digital technologies, for example, low parental control predicted more time of Internet usage by school-aged

Parenting style dimensions seem influenced by parents' individual characteristics such as gender, instruction, beliefs, or prior experiences with digital technologies. For example, in Valcke et al. [8] study, mothers are more controlling but also warmer than fathers, both dimensions associated with an authoritative style. In other studies, younger fathers and those who use the Internet more frequently with their teenagers are higher in control [40]. Parental instruction and experiences with digital technologies are other important variables: higher educated parents are more involved and high in control, probably because higher instructional levels also cor-

respond to greater parents' competence with the Internet [8].

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92579*

etc.) on digital parenting.

**4.1 Parenting style**

#### *Digital Parenting: Raising and Protecting Children in Media World DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92579*

Sanders et al. [33] found that when parents are confident to have adequate digital skills, they more often intervene (i.e., with rules and reinforcement strategies) with their children. Parental self-efficacy also influences parental opinions about technologies and how they talk about them with children [33]. Moreover, parental perception of influence in managing technologies decreased with preadolescents that generally are seen as more self-regulated and reluctant to the parental control than younger children. These findings suggest the importance to recognize the influence of child characteristics (such as age, technology usage, perceived competence, etc.) on digital parenting.
