ECREA16-Abstract

Friday, November 11

0 9 : 0 0 – 1 0 : 3 0

ARS08

Children as Audiences 3: Coping in a NetworkedWorld

PP 298

Screens and Children Aged 0–6 : A Study into the Representations and Attitudes of Parents and Early Childhood Professionals

M. Marie

Université Saint-Louis Bruxelles, Information and Communication, Bruxelles, Belgium

In today’s social and technological context different kinds of screens are used by increasingly young audiences and play a significant role in family and social

life (Ólafsson, Livingstone & Haddon, 2014). Yet parents face anxieties and difficulties in dealing with evolving digital technologies, and early childhood

professionals raise questions about the effects of these on the development and well-being of children. This paper analyses, in French-speaking Belgium,

the ways in which the parents of children aged 0–6 talk about their children’s use of screens, the parents’ attitudes toward using screens at home, and

the ways in which the parents regulate (or not) their children’s media use. Moreover, this study was also aimed at early childhood professionals who have

a close relationship with families and can therefore provide additional insights into how parents deal with their children’s use of screens. We were also in‑

terested in the professionals’own attitudes and representations toward screen use in early childhood. This study was funded by the Belgian Office National

de la Naissance et de l’Enfance (ONE) to inform the development of awareness actions aimed at ONE’s target groups, i.e. the children, their parents and

the early childhood professionals. Both researched groups were approached through a quantitative survey followed by qualitative focus group interviews.

First, the survey consisted in an online questionnaire (one version for each group) focusing on the parents’(n=1798) and professionals’(n=643) attitudes

and practices toward screens and the children’s media use at home. A procedure was implemented in collaboration with ONE professionals in order to reach

out to families that are less connected. Second, two sets of focus group interviews were organised in order to get deeper insights into the professionals’

and parents’ representations of screen use in early childhood and their information or training needs in that respect. Our findings show that parents and

professionals are generally unfavourable to the use of screens by children because screens are seen as potentially harmful to the children’s development.

This contrasts with the fact that households have on average six different types of screens, most of which are in collective spaces (e.g. the living room). This

negative attitude is reflected in the parents’and even more the professionals’attempts to restrict or even prohibit the uses of screens by children. However,

the dynamics of family life makes this strategy ineffective. Parents and professionals only have limited discussions about the children’s uses of screens and

mostly address possible restrictive measures. However, a few parents encourage their children to selectively use media that support their individual and

social development, and most express a willingness to accompany children rather than restrict their use of screens. Both parents and childhood profession‑

als are aware of the need to educate children to screens, but they struggle to identify positive behaviours toward these objects that are both coveted and

worrying. The study points to the need to develop media education initiatives aimed at parents and childhood professionals.

PP 299

In the Peripheries of Network Society: Digital Media in Economically Deprived Families with Children in Sweden

M. Danielsson

Halmstad University, School of Health and Welfare, Halmstad, Sweden

For most people in Sweden access to the internet can be taken for granted today, much in the same way as access to water and electricity. However, there

are still parts of the population, not only among the elderly, for whom internet access might be a scarce resource and therefore also a source of struggle.

This paper focuses on one such group, namely economically deprived families with children. More specifically, it presents the rationales and early results

of an ongoing media ethnographic study on the various meanings attributed to digital media by the members of such households (both parents and chil‑

dren), focusing especially on the concerns, conflicts and strategies associated with the limitations surrounding their acquisition of digital media devices as

well as their internet access and use, within an everyday context of economic deprivation. Even though previous research on digital divides has convincingly

shown them to be irreducible to a generational problem that will disappear by itself over time – for example, class-related variables such as educational

level, occupation and income also matter – relatively little is known about their occurrences within the so-called“digital generation”, especially in Sweden.

More generally, large-scale surveys have successfully evidenced and mapped the empirical patterns of digital divides among young people, but we still

have limited knowledge about the contextually embedded generative mechanisms through which these patterns emerge. Even less attention has been

paid to the ways in which young people at the margins of network society, along with their parents, actually experience and deal with their potentially

limited internet access in everyday life. Against this backdrop, this paper deals with the fundamental question of what it feels like raising children and

growing up under conditions of scarce economic resources and potentially limited internet access in a highly wired society generally associated with social

equality. What does it feel like not being able to give your children equal technological opportunities as their friends (or having to make huge sacrifices

in order to secure such opportunities)? How do the potential experiences of feeling different and digitally excluded matter for the children’s well-being?

And how are the potential conflicts stemming from the scarcity of (digital) resources affecting family life? Adopting a non-media-centric approach built

around Bourdieusian social theory and insights from domestication research, the paper thus sets out to explore not only the meanings and uses of digital

media in the particular context of economically deprived families with children in Sweden, but also the subjective and emotional dimensions of economic

vulnerability and social class in today’s network society.