Ten to Fourteen-Year-Olds and Their Parents Need More Media Literacy
– 2 min read
Social media and games are very popular among ten to fourteen-year-olds, but they face many risks. Their parents are not always helpful when it comes to dealing with these risks. From the children's point of view, parents need more knowledge, commitment and empathy to support them competently and as equals in their media experiences.
A monitoring study in the ACT ON! project, which is being carried out by the JFF on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), has concluded that ten to fourteen-year-olds and their parents need more media competence in dealing with social media services and games.
"In research workshops, the pre-teens reported on the online risks they are confronted with on popular services such as YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp and in games such as Minecraft, Fortnite and Roblox. Cyberbullying, sexual harassment, insults and hate speech, as well as scams and fraud, but also content that is too much for children and young people to handle, challenge them to use media wisely," says the JFF. Statements from 10-12 year olds in particular show that they see their parents as gatekeepers. Parents accompany/control the selection of media content and apps. There is comparatively little dialogue between parents and children about how to use online services safely or how to set security settings.
Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus calls for further research and promotion of media literacy: "Children and young people want to participate online and take part in digital life as a matter of course. In order for them to be able to confidently deal with the special challenges they face online, there is a constant need for new insights into current online risks and how best to deal with them. We support children and young people and their parents in strengthening their media skills by accompanying them in their children's media education and talking to them about their online experiences. For example, we make an important contribution with the initiative 'SCHAU HIN! What your child is doing with media.' - the media guide for parents."
The results of the survey and conclusions are available online. ACT ON! is a project of the JFF - Institute for Media Education in Research and Practice. As part of the monitoring study, around 70 young people in the 10-12 and 12-14 age groups are interviewed each year in qualitative research workshops.
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