Introduction

A child's relationship with the internet is shaped by multiple factors. Chapter 17 showed that individual characteristics (demographic, psychological), national context (socioeconomic stratification, legal framework, technological infrastructure, education system, cultural values) and social mediation influence the way that children use the internet and, thus, the risks and opportunities they encounter. The actions of parents, siblings and peers and teachers are part of that social mediation (see Livingstone et al, 2011).

Since parents are responsible for their children's education, they play a vital role in limiting the risks and harm to which children may be exposed. In the specific case of the internet, it should be remembered that although children's use of handheld devices is growing, the household is still the main locus of internet access (see Chapter 4 in this volume). Research has examined the role of parents in children’s media use, distinguishing different types of parental mediation strategies (see classifications in Valkenburg et al, 1999; Livingstone and Helsper, 2008; Kirwil et al, 2009). This chapter explores which strategies are the most effective for minimising online risks and harm and maximising online opportunities for children, using the classifications in Chapter 17 – summarised as: (i) co-use – parent is present/sharing the activity with the child; (ii) active mediation – parent discusses content (for example, interprets, criticises) to guide the child; (iii) restrictive mediation –parent sets rules to restrict the child's use (for example, time or activity); (iv) monitoring – parent checks available records of child's internet use; and (v) technical restrictions – use of software to filter, restrict or monitor the child's use.

In practice, it is difficult to distinguish co-use and active mediation, since sharing an activity generally involves talking about it. Therefore, in this chapter, instead of distinguishing between ‘active mediation’ of internet use generally, and active mediation of internet safety in particular, we combine these classifications. This combined classification probably represents the main sources of support available to children. For policy makers, it enables them to differentiate by demographic factors and by country when providing support for children.

Overall, all these mediation types are fairly widespread among children.