Peer-reviewed article
Emerging Ideas. Digital parenting advice: Online guidance regarding children's use of the Internet and social media
Lauren E. Harris, Jerry A. Jacobs ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study analyzed 73 websites that provide parenting advice on managing children's internet and social media use. The websites most commonly recommended privacy protection, monitoring, limiting use, parent-child communication, and safety measures. The analysis found that websites emphasize online risks about twice as often as opportunities, and most do not address the lasting impact of online sharing on future opportunities like college or employment.
Key points
- Privacy, monitoring, limiting use, parent-child communication, and safety were the most common advice topics across websites
- Websites emphasized risks of being online roughly twice as often as opportunities
- Only about 40% of websites addressed the permanence of online sharing or its impact on college admissions or employment
- Advice focuses more on protecting children than teaching them to navigate social media beneficially
- Guidance sources included professional associations, magazines, blogs, and other websites
Limitations
This is a content analysis of existing advice websites and does not assess whether the recommended parenting strategies are effective in practice or whether they actually improve child outcomes. The study does not examine how parents use or implement this advice, or whether certain approaches work better than others.
Abstract
Abstract Objective This research explores online advice to parents for managing children's Internet and social media use to understand what courses of action are recommended for parents. Background Parents often play a protectionist role in parenting, including trying to limit their children's Internet use to reduce harms. However, little is known about the advice parents are provided about how to make these decisions. Methods We conducted a content analysis of 73 websites offering advice to parents on guiding their children's Internet use. These websites are sponsored by professional associations as well as magazines, blogs, and others. Results Privacy, monitoring, limiting use, parent–child communication, and safety were the most common topic areas. We find that sites emphasize the risks of being online roughly twice as often as the opportunities. Only approximately two fifths of the websites addressed the permanence of online sharing or how this may impact future college admissions or employment opportunities. Conclusion Advice given to parents focuses on protecting children (privacy, safety, monitoring) much more than teaching children how to navigate social media platforms for their benefit. Implications Given the proliferation of social media and the Internet and how online behavior affects opportunities, it is increasingly important to understand what guidance parents are provided to teach children how to develop digital cultural capital in a technologically advanced world.