Premium
The boundaries between: Parental involvement in a teen's online world
Author(s) -
Erickson Lee B.,
Wisniewski Pamela,
Xu Heng,
Carroll John M.,
Rosson Mary Beth,
Perkins Daniel F.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.903
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 2330-1643
pISSN - 2330-1635
DOI - 10.1002/asi.23450
Subject(s) - popularity , autonomy , covert , the internet , parental control , control (management) , psychology , power (physics) , social media , social psychology , internet privacy , developmental psychology , computer science , world wide web , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , political science , law
The increasing popularity of the Internet and social media is creating new and unique challenges for parents and adolescents regarding the boundaries between parental control and adolescent autonomy in virtual spaces. Drawing on developmental psychology and C ommunication P rivacy M anagement ( CPM ) theory, we conduct a qualitative study to examine the challenge between parental concern for adolescent online safety and teens' desire to independently regulate their own online experiences. Analysis of 12 parent–teen pairs revealed five distinct challenges: (a) increased teen autonomy and decreased parental control resulting from teens' direct and unmediated access to virtual spaces, (b) the shift in power to teens who are often more knowledgeable about online spaces and technology, (c) the use of physical boundaries by parents as a means to control virtual spaces, (d) an increase in indirect boundary control strategies such as covert monitoring, and (e) the blurring of lines in virtual spaces between parents' teens and teens' friends.