Support versus restriction: parents’ influence on young children’s information behaviour in connection with mobile devices
Introduction. This paper examines how parents perceive and mediate young children's use of mobile devices and discusses how this may affect children's information behaviour. Method. For data collection, semi-structured interviews with 22 parents from 19 families with 22 children aged one to six years who had already used mobile devices were conducted. Analysis. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using the software MAXQDA. A combination of inductive and deductive coding methods was used for data analysis. Results. The analysis shows that young children engage in a great variety of information-related activities while interacting with mobile devices. The results also indicate a strong parental influence. Parents expressed positive and negative perceptions of young children's use of mobile devices and reported different enabling and restrictive mediation practices. Conclusions. By supporting children's use of mobile devices, parents enable their children to engage in activities that help them to access new information and expand their knowledge. At the same time, parents try to protect their children from risks and negative influences through restrictions. In this way, parents act as a bottleneck for children's access to information by mobile devices.