Engl. transl.: Parental mediation of children's computer and internet use

Background and aims: Despite the fact that computer and internet usage have become a part of everyday life, most studies focus on excessive usage or salient cases. Besides dealing with extreme and pathologic usage and identification of risk factors, it is also important to assess parental pedagogical methods which can lead to healthy and effective internet use by children. As a consequence of the progressive growth of internet penetration, this issue concerns a significant proportion of Hungarian society. Methods: In the present study we carried out halfstructured interviews with parents on parental control and supervision of internet usage of children; the frequency of joint (parent and child) internet usage; and parents’ views about internet as a tool of reward or punishment. Results: Results indicate that most parents do not regulate their child’s internet usage by controlling or filtering software, joint internet usage is only occasional and its primary function is communication. Furthermore, parents often punish their children by depriving them from internet use. Discussion: In the case of such relatively new fields of media domains as the internet, it is important to establish effective and safe parental norms which can lead to autonomous, responsible and risk-avoidant internet usage of children possible. The present study shows where we stand in this process currently, providing guidelines on how to achieve an optimal parenting from the perspective of computer and internet use.

The focus of the study was parental mediation and especially control, common usage and whether the parents use computer and internet usage to reward or punish their children. According to the results most parent do not control their children usage neither by a dedicated software nor personally. Most kids could use the computer by their own and even in their own room. Most control mechanism aim to limit the time they spent online, or restricting the hours/times when the could use it. Common usage strongly predicts healthy usage habits, but only half of the parents use these ICTs together with their kids in the sample. An even this common usage is mostly technical help what usually comes from the children. Most parents apply a permissive parenting strategy regarding internet use. They are mostly passive, but also often use the permission or the restriction of internet usage as tools of punishment or reward. "A jelen kutatás eredményei arra hívják fel a figyelmet, hogy a szül!k szempontjából leglényegesebb terület, amelyr!l viszonylag kidolgozott reprezentációkkal bírnak, az az internetezési id! általi jutalmazás és büntetés. Amíg nem tudatosul a szül!k szélesebb csoportjában, hogy az internetezés nem pusztán egy fegyelmezési eszköz, addig érdemes lenne feltárni, hogy milyen módon képes formálni az internettől való eltiltás a gyermekek viselkedését."(Mihalik Árpád-Szabó Éva-Kovács Péter: Parental mediation of children's computer and internet use, Alkalmazott Pszichológia, 2014 4(1): 47-58, p:56) "The results of this study shows that from the respect of parents the most important aspect, from which they have relatively sophisticated representation is the punishing and rewarding with internet usage. Until wider groups of parents will not have become aware that internet use is not a mere tool of discipline, it would worth mapping how proscribing from internet usage can affect children's behavior." (Mihalik Árpád-Szabó Éva-Kovács Péter: Parental mediation of children's computer and internet use, Alkalmazott Pszichológia, 2014 4(1): 47-58, p:56)