Engl. transl.: The role of parents in the online behavior of hyperconnected minors

Introduction. This article disseminates the results of an investigation oriented to the study of the current multiscreen contexts in which minors develop, from the perspective of risks and opportunities. The main objective is to analyse the characteristics of the consumption scenario and family mediation. Methodology. This research has been developed using the survey technique. The universe under study has been the children enrolled in the Community of Madrid from 5 to 17 years old. (n = 840). Results and conclusions. It has detected a higher rate of hyperconnected homes, in which minors with mobile devices for autonomous and personal use predominate, and an intensive user profile that is from the age of 16 and amounts to 39% of the population on weekends orholidays. Mediation strategies are limited to content and time control.

The authors highlight that the results of this study reveal that the consumption scenario of digital services is changing at a vertiginous pace mainly due to the early access to screens and the proliferation of mobile devices for Internet access, mainly the mobile phone. Torrecillas-Lacave et al. (2020: 138) remark that there has been a shift from a scenario of child consumption that took place mainly at homes through stationary screens or parents devices, mainly in childhood and the first years of adolescence, to an "ubiquitous, permanent and personal consumption environment, the early access to mobile devices for personal and autonomous use, that entails direct consequences in use habits and family mediation". The authors highlight that parents are the first and foremost responsibles of the introduction of minor in the digital life since the first experiences of use are produced in the family context, using the screens of parents. Torrecillas-Lacave et al. (2020) highlight that the boom of the YouTuber phenomenon detected in this study and its possible influence in the development of minors "indicates how the uses of Internet evolve and how there multiply the risks and opportunities in this new platform" (139). The authors establish a classification of children population as "an hyperconnected one starting from the 7 years old, in an intensified manner after 10 years old and generalised after 13 years old, and that this predisposition towards screens is forged since the pre-school stage and where parents have a direct responsibility" (Torrecillas-Lacave et al., 2020: 139). Results also show that children´s attitudes towards digitalisation is of absolute openness and predisposition, up to the point they deem having a screen with Internet access, essential for their life. Torrecillas-Lacave (2020: 139) remark: "this translates into a demand of the device at increasingly early ages, a request that parents progressively agree to, even sooner". Regarding children´s digital skills results show The minors have perfectly assimilated technical digital skills. They are skilful in the use of digital services and even in techniques to improve privacy. Torrecillas-Lacave et al. (2020: 139) stress out that "parents do not have an educational pattern that is clear and stable over time when it comes to educate their children and often contradict" and "The family mediation is practically null on the early stages of pre-school. Parents leave the devices to their children, and often favour the use at these ages due to the feeling of having them calmed and controlled" (Torrecillas-Lacave et al., 2020: 140).