Why a balanced approach to social media may be more promising than full restriction
Handbook of Children and Screens
January 8, 2025
Balance is everywhere!
There are no universal agreements as to the appropriate age for children to get smartphones or consume media, including social media. There are no definitive answers about how to handle children’s media consumption.
But in “Parenting and Screens During Middle Childhood,” published in Handbook of Children and Screens, the authors, consisting of experts and professors across North America, found some consistent themes in research as to how parental mediation can affect child media consumption. Research compiled by the authors suggests that a balanced approach to parental mediation can improve the social media experience for children.
Monitoring a child’s media consumption and setting clear and consistent rules while also letting them weigh in on those rules and interact with media on their own can improve their experience and their understanding of the digital media landscape.
The authors of “Parenting and Screens” classified several types of mediation:
Restrictive: “parental supervision and control of media use.”
Active: “parent and child discussions around media.”
Controlling: “punishing a child for not following the rules.”
As the authors wrote: “Extremely controlling approaches are unlikely to be effective, while strategies that engage with children around their media use are more promising.”
They continued: “While findings are not entirely consistent, it appears that in the modern era of interactive technology and constant connection, established positive parenting techniques that combine predictable and enforced rules with support and warmth and positive parental modeling may translate best into children’s healthy media behaviors.”
The authors conclude that parents should consider their child’s “development, maturity, independence, and responsibility” when weighing whether to allow smartphone and screen access.
Additionally, parents “need to balance restrictive mediation (including delaying their access to social media) with opportunities to build experience, digital literacy, and online social skills.” Using monitoring software to track activity and inviting children into discussions about rules and policies around can be helpful in limiting negative exposure online.
Lastly, parents need to recognize that their own media consumption is likely to be mirrored by their kids!
Here at The Balance Project, we know that technology, screens, smartphones, and social media are part of the world and that denying kids’ access to them may not be realistic — or even beneficial! As always, our goal is to help find the sweet spot in protecting and nurturing our children online and in the real world, while also letting them explore and learn on their own.
Interested in starting a Balance Project chapter in your community? Find out more here!.
We all know social media has its pros and cons. It’s a whole can of worms: How can parents improve a child’s media literacy and allow them to connect with their peers while also avoiding negative or inappropriate experiences, like bullying, aggression, or encountering sexual content.
As the authors of “Parenting and Screens” write, young social media adoption can lead to positive behaviors, including media literacy and “posting socially supportive content and spreading awareness of socially conscious issues.”
Of course, media consumption in general can also lead to exposure to those negative experiences.