Parenting for a Digital Future

As announced in a previous edition of the BIK bulletin, the recent launch of a parenting and digital media blog from LSE gives parenting advocates, researchers and parents themselves easy access to cutting-edge research, including from LSE's own current project on Parenting for a Digital Future.

Date 2015-10-09 Author LSE Section awareness, research

The LSE team provide a round up of the latest discussions below:

"Since launching in March we have kept on top of breaking news and public debates in ON OUR MINDS. We've asked 'now that kids are diversifying away from Facebook, how can parents keep up?', considered whether 'smart Barbies' are manipulating children's emotions, and summarised some of the unique benefits and risks that digital media pose for children and young people in foster care. We've tackled some big issues, thinking about how parents can deal with online extremism and the importance of parents as witnesses in the case of the Syrian refugee crisis.

"In FROM OUR NOTES we draw on our current research with children, families and digital media in the UK and US. We've provided an overview and ‘top tips' from the research on how parents manage kids' media use and looked at how playing computer games might bring long-term benefits when kids move from digital hobbies to jobs. We've offered suggestions for practical and ethical ‘good practice' for researchers looking to work with sites where young people hang out and learn, and suggested why it is important to study families from a Media Studies perspective.

"AROUND THE WORLD features guest bloggers working in diverse contexts on a global scale. Recently we've learned from parents in Australia who set up a Minecraft server as a ‘digital backyard' and about how grandparents and grandchildren in the Democratic Republic of the Congo negotiate shared mobile phone use. Guest posters have written about the importance of making connections through social media in rural Mexico, and on the process of asking young people to imagine the future in coastal England. We've covered the increasing ‘mediatization' of young people's lives in Germany, the role of social media in maintaining gender segregation practices in Pakistan and on parents and children learning and playing together through games in Jamaica.

"We've also created a round up of key resources for parents trying to untangle the digital world with their children. These are all non-commercial places to go to for advice and ideas.

"For more, and to subscribe or share, visit www.parenting.digital. And do get in touch if you'd like to contribute."

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