What Changed During COVID-19? How the COVID-19 Crisis Changed Parental Perceptions and Practices Related to Children's Internet Use in Five European Countries

Authors

  • Beatrice Sciacca Dublin City University
  • Christine W. Trültzsch-Wijnen Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig, Salzburg (Austria) Charles University, Prague (Czech Republic)
  • Anca Velicu Institute of Sociology, Romania
  • Patricia Dias Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Cultura, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon (Portugal)
  • Tijana Milosevic Dublin City University
  • Elisabeth Staksrud Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo, Oslo (Norway)

Keywords:

parental mediation, COVID-19, Internet use, adolescence, children, cross-country

Abstract

The COVID-19 lockdown saw an increased reliance on digital technology for children, which might have called for changes in parental mediation practices. The present study aimed at analyzing the extent to which such changes took place, their predictors, and their differences across countries. Data were collected from 2,412 parents and 2,412 children in Austria, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, and Romania. Results showed that on average 48.3% of parents used mediation practices with the same frequency as before the lockdown, while 38% applied more mediation. Both active and restrictive mediation were predicted by children’s time online, parents’ worry about risks, parents’ technology fatigue, and parent-child involvement. Furthermore, restrictive mediation was predicted by risks encountered online by children, while active mediation was predicted also by children’s excessive Internet use. Differences in parental mediation changes were observed across countries.

Author Biographies

Beatrice Sciacca, Dublin City University

Beatrice Sciacca, MSc, is a Research Assistant at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. Her research focuses on children’s and adolescents’ Internet use and parental mediation practices.

Christine W. Trültzsch-Wijnen, Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig, Salzburg (Austria) Charles University, Prague (Czech Republic)

Christine W. Trültzsch-Wijnen, PhD, is a full professor of Media Literacy at Salzburg University and an associate professor of Communication and Media Studies at Charles University. Her research interests concern media literacy, audience research, and the relationship between children and media.

Anca Velicu, Institute of Sociology, Romania

Anca Velicu, PhD, is a researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Romanian Academy. Her research interests involve media and public space, the construction of public problems, and the relationship between children and digital media.

Patricia Dias, Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Cultura, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon (Portugal)

Patrícia Dias, PhD, is an assistant professor of Communication and Marketing at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Her main research interests are the use of digital media by children and algo within organizational communication, marketing and branding.

Tijana Milosevic, Dublin City University

Tijana Milosevic, PhD, is a researcher at Dublin City University. Her research interests concern digital media and young people’s wellbeing.

Elisabeth Staksrud, Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo, Oslo (Norway)

Elisabeth Staksrud, PhD, is a professor at University of Oslo. Her research interests regard children, young people and new media, safe use and risks of Internet, and moral panic around media.

Downloads

Published

2023-10-14

Issue

Vol. 17 (2023)

Section

Articles

License

The International Journal of Communication is an academic journal. As such, it is dedicated to the open exchange of information. For this reason, IJoC is freely available to individuals and institutions. Copies of this journal or articles in this journal may be distributed for research or educational purposes free of charge and without permission. However, commercial use of the IJoC website or the articles contained herein is expressly prohibited without the written consent of the editor. Authors who publish in The International Journal of Communication will release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd) license. This license allows anyone to copy and distribute the article for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given. For details of the rights authors grants users of their work, see the "human-readable summary" of the license, with a link to the full license. (Note that "you" refers to a user, not an author, in the summary.) This journal utilizes the LOCKSSsystem to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. The publisher perpetually authorizes participants in the LOCKSS system to archive and restore our publication through the LOCKSS System for the benefit of all LOCKSS System participants. Specifically participating libraries may:
  • Collect and preserve currently accessible materials;
  • Use material consistent with original license terms;
  • Provide copies to other LOCKSS appliances for purposes of audit and repair.
 

Fair Use

The U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 specifies, in Section 107, the terms of the Fair Use exception: Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:
  1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
  2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
  3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; &
  4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors. In accord with these provisions, the International Journal of Communication believes in the vigorous assertion and defense of Fair Use by scholars engaged in academic research, teaching and non-commercial publishing. Thus, we view the inclusion of “quotations” from existing print, visual, audio and audio-visual texts to be appropriate examples of Fair Use, as are reproductions of visual images for the purpose of scholarly analysis. We encourage authors to obtain appropriate permissions to use materials originally produced by others, but do not require such permissions as long as the usage of such materials falls within the boundaries of Fair Use.

The International Journal of Communication encourages authors to employ fair use in their scholarly publishing wherever appropriate. Fair use is the right to use unlicensed copyrighted material (whether it is text, images, audio-visual, or other) in your own work, in some circumstances. We consult the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Scholarly Research in Communication, created by the International Communication Association and endorsed by the National Communication Association, and you should too. If you have any questions about whether fair use applies to your uses of copyrighted material (whether it is text, images, audio-visual, or other) in your scholarship, simply include your rationale, grounded in the Best Practices, as a supplementary document with your submission.