Engl. transl.: Media Rituals and their Meaning for Children and Parents. First Report of the Sub-study "Mobile Media and Internet in Childhood – Focus on the Family

"In different sub-studies, the project "MoFam – Mobile Medien in der Familie" looks at the upbringing of children aged 0 to 10 years with digital and mobile media. The objective of the sub-study "Familien-Medien-Monitoring" is to obtain information about the importance of media in families at the different age stages of children as well as to understand how children acquire media. As initial insights from the study have demonstrated, in today's mediatised world, digital and mobile media influence the everyday lives of children (Jochim et al. 2018). While families are equipped with digital and mobile media, parents face the challenges of media education in different ways. Some families are open-minded about digital and mobile media, and their children often come into contact with them at an early age, while other parents make a point of keeping their children away from these media as much as possible. It became evident that parents critically question their own role model function in regards to media use as well as their own handling of media. Many parents try to act the right way but are also worried about doing something wrong (ibid.). The first survey of "Familien-Medien-Monitoring" showed that media use in the families partly takes place in a ritualised way. For the second wave of the survey, a focus was placed on rituals of this kind with a media connection to find out which rituals are evident as well as what function and meaning these rituals have for the families and especially for the children." (Oberlinner et al. 2018, 3). [translated by the coder]

"The study shows that media rituals can be a bonding element between parents and children and are generally a positive experience for the children. In this respect, families make use of the advantages of the media individually and according to their respective requirements in everyday life. With the help of media rituals, parents can adapt to the needs of their children, use the ritualised media use for themselves and also achieve certain (educational) goals. Families show many different rituals which take place with different media, mostly depending above all on the parents' own habits. The media rituals differ particularly about their situations of use. They are very closely oriented to the related structures and needs of the individual family members and become an important part of everyday family life. Media rituals are often a central element of the everyday structure for parents and children; in many cases, ritualised media use is staged as something very special or as a highlight. It takes place, for example, at the end of the day before going to bed or at other significant moments in everyday life. For families, media rituals are often very valuable in their functions of structuring the day, creating free space especially for parents, but also using them educationally. Used consciously, rituals with media can provide support in family life. Many rituals have developed out of situations that have proven to be supportive and positive in various situations. Especially for younger children, media rituals portray security, but also offer them the chance to leave the usual over and over again and to turn to new things in measured doses." (Oberlinner et al. 2018, 1) [translated by the coder]