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Factors reducing the risk of internet addiction in young people in their home environment
Factors Reducing the Risk of Internet Addiction in Young People in their Home Environment Arkadiusz Wasi´nski, Łukasz Tomczyk PII: DOI: Reference:
S0190-7409(15)30030-X doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.07.022 CYSR 2742
To appear in:
Children and Youth Services Review
Received date: Revised date: Accepted date:
31 July 2014 30 July 2015 30 July 2015
Please cite this article as: Wasi´ nski, A. & Tomczyk, L ., Factors Reducing the Risk of Internet Addiction in Young People in their Home Environment, Children and Youth Services Review (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.07.022
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FACTORS REDUCING THE RISK OF INTERNET ADDICTION IN YOUNG PEOPLE IN THEIR HOME ENVIRONMENT
PhD, Dean, ul. Pandy 13, 02-202 Warszawa E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.wspkorczak.eu Phone: +48 509192764
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Łukasz Tomczyk Pedagogical University of Cracow, Cracow, Poland
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Arkadiusz Wąsiński Janusz Korczak Pedagogical University in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
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PhDr. Ing, Lecturer, ul. Podchorążych 2, 30-084 Kraków E-mail: [email protected] (Corresponding author) Website: http://www.up.krakow.pl/main/eng/ Phone: +48 503738988
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FACTORS REDUCING THE RISK OF INTERNET ADDICTION IN YOUNG PEOPLE IN THEIR HOME ENVIRONMENT
Abstract:
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Contemporary research fails to provide insight into the threats that Internet activities pose to young people and the risk of Internet addiction, examined both from the perspective of the relationships that young people have with their parents and the latter’s readiness for parenting. Researchers emphasize that the way young people function in cyberspace and the choices they make regarding their use of Internet resources, computer games or software depend mostly on communication and socialization in their home environment during their upbringing. A diagnostic study has been conducted with middle school students to examine the nature (resulting from this particular stage of their development) of their relationships with parents. Although young people are generally selfsufficient, in the majority of life aspects they depend heavily on their parents. Cyberspace gives them an opportunity to become independent more quickly, but it also poses threats of which young people are often unaware. The analysis of the study results presents a two-variant model of parental behavior that determines the quality of children’s Internet activities. Both interest shown by parents and their readiness for parenting have turned out to be the critical factors in reducing the risk of Internet addiction. The conclusion, in turn, considers other theoretical premises for the possibility of a third variant of parental behavior, which was described according to the strategy that creates conditions that favor the optimal participation of students in cyberspace.
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Key words: Internet addiction, middle school students, risky and safe behaviors, readiness for parenting, Internet addiction conditioning factors, media education, home environment.
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Introduction
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Internet addiction (Şenormancı, Konkan & Sungur, 2012)1 is defined as the addiction to new, Internet and mobile digital technologies that comprise cyberspace. It involves gradual reduction of individual self-determination, which eventually leads to the loss of control over one’s individual behavior. The important characteristic of this addiction is that it gradually focuses one’s everyday activities on the virtual dimension of reality. This means that addicted individuals abandon their everyday activities and devote their time to the activities that they have discovered in cyberspace (Ferguson & Olson, 2013). Internet addiction is thus a specific state of mind in which addicted individuals lose their grasp of their real existence. They are seized with an urge to participate constantly in what is, in fact, illusory and deceptive and what leads to the gradual loss of their ability to make independent life choices. With time, it destroys their interpersonal relationships and undermines or even hinders the development of their personalities in various areas (Young, 2007). Thus, Internet addiction in contemporary young people reveals itself in them being deeply intellectually and emotionally absorbed by the virtual world. It disturbs their development and functioning, gradually disorganizing the key aspects of their life activities. With time, this deepens and preserves young persons’ conflict in relation to the outer world. This conflict can be observed in the following three layers: interpersonal – addicted person increasingly antagonizes themselves with their own social environment which does not accept pathological use of cyberspace; 1
The literature offers a number of names for the addiction to technology, e.g.: Internet addiction, computer addiction, cyber addiction, net addiction, cyberspace addiction, technological addiction.
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intrapsychic – along with the progressing addiction, the awareness of loss of control over one’s own activity in cyberspace and helplessness in changing this state of matters increases; this, in turn, intensifies the sense of disintegration of addict’s psychic life and dissatisfaction with oneself; existential – pathological use of cyberspace entails radical neglect of other activities in the key areas of life such as self-development and self-fulfillment connected with e.g. education, work, creative activity, hobby, leisure (Griffiths, 2000).
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Internet addiction involves mental crossing of a symbolic boundary associated with the ability to exercise one’s own free will. In this process, individuals who consciously use new media to achieve the aims they have set for themselves unconsciously lose their distance from the virtual dimension of reality. The more they want to experience the pleasures available in the digital world, the more submissive they become to the urge to remain in cyberspace (Young, 2004; Juszczyk, 2004). The characteristic features of the addiction include not only the very fact of the excessive use of cyberspace, which marginalizes other forms of actual and anticipated activity, but also the compulsive urge to separate or even escape from reality (Peele, 2000).
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Kimberly Young emphasizes that it is necessary to treat Internet addiction seriously, and she demonstrates that it does not differ from other types of addictions (Young, 1998; Kim & Kim, 2002). Internet addiction is similar to drug addiction as it involves the following typical stages: a) “overestimation” of the object of addiction (the object thus becomes a priority); b) mood swings of the addicted individual; c) increasing tolerance of the preferred type of activity in the digital world; d) cyberspace craving symptoms; and e) ever more frequent returns to the pathological form of activity to satisfy the craving (Young & Klausing, 2007). The addiction leads to the loss of detachment from the digital world, and it also radically increases one’s tendency to withdraw from everyday tasks, duties, games and contacts in social reality (Ngai, 2007). However, this means not only the change of proportion between various forms of activity in the real and the virtual world, but also mental transformation of the addicted person, who gradually loses contact with reality and people from his or her family, neighborhood and school (Griffiths, 2004; Young, 1998).
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Internet addiction does not develop in a social vacuum, but in one’s home environment. Home is associated with such categories as: close relationships, presence, genuine conversation, shared history, family traditions and upbringing. Home is also a place where young people learn how to perceive, recognize and assess the world around them (Cole, 2011). Yet, the closeness and presence of one’s family members, which holds the family together, cannot be taken for granted. Members of a family may lose their sense of unity and succumb to spiritual solitude, which disintegrates the family. As a result, people separate themselves from each other in their parallel realities. Such a situation develops a sense of confusion and loss in young people and reduces their sense of distance from cyberspace, which in turn becomes an attractive alternative to the real world. Thus, spiritual isolation creates conditions that foster the development of Internet addiction in the youngest family members. The risk of Internet addiction among young people is connected with a unilateral and uncritical attitude of their parents toward new online media. If parents are convinced that the potential ICT (information and communication technologies) possibilities guarantee at the same time positive impact on cyberspace users, they clearly communicate to their children that using new media is only safe. Yet, the fact of having access to online information resources, stimulating cognitive skills, improving reading fluency or developing mathematic skills is not the only way young people’s psyche is influenced.
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT First media socialization and the attitude toward new media among the youngest users is developed in their home environment (Rideout, 2014), which assigns meaning (value) to time spent on the Internet. Parents’ knowledge and the rules for safe media use shape the first habits of the use of electronic media among the youngest family members.
Methods
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The international research study, EU Kids Online, was conducted in 25 European countries (N=25142) and reveals that parents’ knowledge regarding the functioning of electronic media, which translates into the intentional educational processes, reduces factors that determine electronic threats. Duerager and Livingstone (2012) point out that complete, consistent and aware participation of meaningful persons in the social media space limits risky behaviors (such as Internet addiction, cyberbullying, and initiating risky relations) among the young network users. According to the EU Kids Online research study (Duerager & Livingstone, 2012), which outlined the rules of electronic media use by adolescents and persons who are interested in cyberspace, Polish parents as well as families from the following countries participated: Portugal, Finland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary. The participation of the meaningful persons in the mew media space is characterized by: parents’ awareness of which Internet websites are visited by their children, the way adolescents interact in online communities, contact with known and unknown schoolmates, using online communicators, software protecting from malware or viruses, parental control programs or setting the rules for Internet use (time spent on the Internet, downloading software or audiovisual resources) (Livingstone, Haddon, Görzig & Ólafsson, 2011). Paradoxically, Internet addiction in children is fostered by their parents, who by agreeing to the segmentation of family life lose both the readiness and the practical opportunities to make a pedagogical impact on their lives. As a result, young individuals, unaware of the fact that they are being influenced by hidden psychological mechanisms forcing them to “stay online” all of the time (Mikuláš, Fichnova & Wojciechowski, 2012; Pyżalski, 2012), bear all of the consequences of the uncontrollable and unpredictable results of self-socialization (Holtkamp, 2011; Kopecký, Szotkowski & Krejčí, 2012). The following opposing factors increase the risk of young people’s vulnerability to the dangers of the digital world and the threat of Internet addiction: preferring digital forms of communication in cyberspace (Goban-Klas, 2011; Blackwell, Lauricella, Conway & Wartella, 2014); a relatively low awareness of their parents regarding the risky forms of children’s Internet activities (Tadeusiewicz, 2007); and finally, the lack of readiness among parents to prepare children for safe and quality participation in cyberspace, which seems even more important than the others (Gencer & Koc, 2012). The study is based on the assumption that the factors reducing the risk of Internet addiction in young people in their home environment include: readiness of the parents to participate in cyberspace together with their children, the types and range of the desirable forms of children’s Internet activities, linguistic and communication rules established in regard to the Internet activities of family members and parents’ preferred socializing and education styles. As a result, we have formulated the following main research problem: What factors rooted in the family environment and connected with the spiritual dimension of closeness and collaboration between the family members reduce the risk of Internet addiction in middle school students? Further considerations have allowed us to clarify the problem in the form of the following research questions:
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 1. What kind of approach toward Internet activities do middle school students expect from their parents? 2. To what extent do the Internet activities of middle school students become a subject of the conversations with their parents?
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3. To what extent are everyday Internet activities of middle school students monitored by their parents?
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4. What meanings do middle school students associate have with their participation in network communities? To what extent can everyday activities of middle school students be qualified as safe?
6. What are the middle school students’ attitudes toward the threat of Internet addiction?
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We conducted the study among middle school students in the city of Bielsko-Biała, Poland. A pilot study preceded the current study in 2009 with the support from the Local Education Authority in Katowice. The diagnostic study involved an online questionnaire, and 368 students (175 boys and 193 girls) took part in the survey, which accounts for 7.05% of the entire population of all middle school students in Bielsko-Biała (its population was 5216 people in 2010; USTAT, 2012). The figures obtained from the Statistical Office demonstrate that the population of students of ages 15 to 19 has an equal number of males and females. The research sample has fulfilled all the necessary conditions since, according to the calculations, the minimum of the research sample for such populations, with the confidence factor of 0.95 and an error rate no higher than 5% (α=0.05), should be 358 (Rubacha, 2008).
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The study was conducted with the use of an on-line questionnaire, “The scale of risky behaviors in the new media space,” which was developed together with the Local Education Authority in Katowice (the institution under the Ministry of Education). It was preceded by an introductory letter that explained the goals of the study and encouraged respondents to take part in it. The questionnaire was designed by referring to the theoretical basis regarding Internet threats among children and youth that can be found in the most popular Polish media education schoolbooks (Morbizer, 2007; Siemieniecki, 2008; Pyżalski, 2011). The construction of “The scale of risky behaviors” has been verified by the pilot study (approx. 9% of the whole population, namely middle school/second grade students) with the use of quantitative research strategy standards (Nachmias & Nachmias, 2007). We conducted the analysis of the data that allows us to answer the above research questions by means of the Yule correlation coefficient, φ, and the statistical chi-squared test, χ2 (Rubacha, 2008; Pilch & Baumann, 2001). The direction of correlations between the variables was set through interpretation of crosstabs in STATISTICA program. Most of the analyzed variables are dichotomic or three-stage. The applied tool is to detect risky behaviors in virtual and family space. The tool does not measure how deep those risky behaviors are but only signalizes their occurrence. Interpretation of certain dependencies was also possible through references to the results of previous qualitative research obtained thanks to open questions included in the questionnaire “The scale of risky behaviors in new media space”. Results
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT On the basis of the statistical analysis, important correlation coefficients have been identified in each question. The detailed presentation of the research results corresponds with the scope of the research questions. Table 1
Presentation of significant statistical results
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P1: Openness of the online activity of students and education activity of parents Parents’ interest in the Internet activity of their children correlates with students’ expectation about the passive attitude of parents
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Both content downloaded from the Internet and content received from on-line friends are hidden before parents
χ2=107; Φ =0,56; p<0,05 χ2=88,3; Φ =0,51; p<0,05
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P2: Establishing the rules for on-line activity together with parents Lack of commonly established rules for on-line activity corresponds with the uncontrolled: χ2=63,14; Φ =0,43; p<0,05 a) use of computer and digital devices, and o n-line web browsing b) use of computer and digital devices, and choices regarding computer games χ2=18,97; Φ =0,25; p<0,05 c) web browsing and choices regarding computer games χ2=61,04; Φ =0,42; p<0,05 d) web browsing and using on-line communicators χ2=76,73; Φ =0,48; p<0,05 P3: Parental control over students’ on-line activity Lack of control over student’ on-line activity correlates with the lack of limitations regarding: χ2=29; Φ =0,29; p<0,05 a) when they use computer b) how much time they spend using computer χ2=39,1; Φ =0,34; p<0,05 Lack of restrictions regarding software correlates with the lack of limitation regarding: χ2=82,3; Φ =0,49; p<0,05 a) selection of software b) movies watched on-line χ2=63,1; Φ =0,43; p<0,05 c) software χ2=32,5; Φ =0,31; p<0,05 d) the content of movies watched on-line χ2=32,8; Φ =0,31; p<0,05 P4: Students’ attitude towards the Internet and participation in on-line community services On-line contacts with peers are treated as an alternative to the traditional contacts when the following correlation occurs: χ2=33,4; Φ =0,31; p<0,05 1) Internet is an important source of knowledge about the life and the world and 2) Internet provides unlimited opportunities for entering into contacts with strangers on-line 3) Internet gives the sense of free dialogue with other network users and 4) Internet is an important source of χ2=44,19; Φ =0,36; p<0,05 knowledge about the life and the world 5) Internet provides unforgettable experiences and 6) Internet provides unlimited opportunities for entering into χ2=31,09; Φ =0,3; p<0,05 contacts with strangers on-line 7) Internet provided unforgettable experiences and 8) Internet gives the sense of free dialogue with other network χ2=43,15; Φ =0,36; p<0,05 users Attitude towards the Internet as a place to meet friends correlates with treating it as place of good fun χ2=46,89; Φ =0,37; p<0,05 P5: Typical forms of students’ on-line participation Daily correspondence with strangers on-line correlates with the fact of meeting someone new in the real world Regular computer game playing:
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a) in the night - correlates with playing till down b) in the morning - correlates with playing till noon c) in the morning - correlates with playing at noon P6: Students’ attitude towards the threats connected with Internet addiction A proper understanding of Internet addiction mechanisms occurs in correlation with choosing computer applications chosen parents on a day-to-day basis Concerns about the actual risk of addiction are in low correlation to being aware of the difficulties with finishing online activity at planned time Concerns about the actual risk of addiction are in low correlation to the fact of knowing other computer addict
χ2=31,27; Φ =0,3; p<0,05 χ2=26,13; Φ =0,28; p<0,05 χ2=42,55; Φ =0,35; p<0,05 χ2=23,79; Φ =0,27; p<0,05 χ2=28,2; Φ =0,29; p<0,05 χ2=13,28; Φ =0,2; p<0,05 χ2=8,41; Φ =0,16; p<0,05
Diagram 1 presents the changeable polarization of the obtained results. They indicate, in P1, P2 and P3, a high level of risky behaviors in the students involved in the study. The complex aspect of parents’ isolation from their children’s day-to-day online activities are the main cause of such behaviors. However, the level of risky behaviors decreases in P4 and P5 to the advantage of safe behaviors. Such change in the behavior of students, who prefer more freedom in designing their individual online activity and independence from parents, is caused by their relatively large distance towards online communities and their preferences as for healthy style of using new Internet technologies. It is worth to emphasize a regularity revealed in P4: positive attitude of students toward Internet as a source of knowledge about life and the world, and a space for free social and entertainment activity with other network users does not lead, in general, to considering it as the alternative but rather as complementary to traditional peer contacts. The obtained
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Graphic presentation of the safe behaviours indicator in relation to risky behaviours in cyberspace
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Diagram 1
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results, however, point out to the group of about 20% of the respondents who treat virtual contacts as an alternative to traditional ones. Category P5, in turn, indicates another causes of dominant safe behaviors. They are: relatively large caution in developing online relations with strangers and definite preference of a healthy style of conducting day-to-day online activities, the latter involving regular sleep and waking periods when using IT. It is likely that such caution in this matter is the result of cyclic social campaigns that have been carried out for 15 years in Polish mainstream media and online services. They shape the social awareness of cyberspace threats in psychophysical, social and legal aspect.
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Discussion
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The level of risky behaviors increases slightly in P6, compared to P4 and P5, even though it still remains at a low level. Shaping proper mechanisms of understanding the phenomenon of Internet addiction positively influences the awareness of the lack of distance towards one’s own online activity. This takes place during conscious selection of computer applications carried out with parents. The factor that increases the level of risky behaviors is relatively low awareness of the risk of becoming addicted among students. The knowledge regarding the mechanisms that deepen Internet addiction is not referred to their own behaviors in cyberspace and does not change their beliefs that addition may be not only other people’s problem but also their own. In this context, neglecting the risk of Internet addiction is quite common among students. The analysis of the study’s results leads to a two-variant model of students’ Internet activities (Diagram 1). The model reveals the regularity according to which parents’ commitment to their own strategy of educating children on the media and through the media translates into children’s awareness and avoidance of risky behaviors in cyberspace. However, if parents fail to make a pedagogical impact and allow their children to use the Internet freely, they expose them to the risk of such behaviors. The key factors that differentiate the quality of Internet activities are the interest of the parents and their readiness to make a pedagogical impact to help their children participate in cyberspace safely and become aware Internet users. Scheme1
Variant 1 “destructive” - increased risk of occurrence of Internet addiction symptoms among the students involved in the study
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Variant 1
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The lack of interest of parents in their children’s Internet activities connected with their lack of readiness for parenting creates the conditions that foster risky behaviors in young Internet users. Parents’ passive attitudes and absence make their children become independent as they cross the boundary between the real and virtual world. The risk involved in the students’ on-line activities stems from their low awareness of the dangers and of the actual threat of Internet addiction. Students frequently make a mistake in that they attach positive values to typically addictive behaviors, which they fail to identify as an addiction. The lack of a critical approach to participation in cyberspace prevents them from detaching themselves from it. Therefore, they consider behaviors that lead to addiction to be desirable and not harmful. The low awareness in this regard that results from parents’ lack of readiness to educate sustains students’ belief that there is no real threat of Internet addiction. Variant 2
The constant presence of parents who monitor their children’s Internet activities creates children who are Internet users aware of the potential on-line threats and the risk of Internet addiction. Parents use the strategy for counteracting these risks by either blocking or prohibiting the activities that they find dangerous. However, they fail to initiate a dialogue that would be aimed at a deeper understanding of behaviors that they consider safe. Instead, they expect to raise their children’s awareness of the sources and types of on-line dangers and the mechanisms of Internet addiction by prohibiting certain behaviors in cyberspace and by denying access to applications and web pages. The response from this group of students reveals their awareness of the threats related to Internet addiction. The latter is considered as radical loss of self-control over one’s own behavior and redirecting almost all activity into cyberspace. Thus, parents’ educational efforts, even though they are restrictive, allow the students to understand the mechanisms of Internet addiction and also to identify behaviors classified as risky and inappropriate.
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Variant 2 “constructive” - Internet addiction risk factors according to parents’ involvement in education and the quality of participation in cyberspace
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Scheme 2
Conclusions
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In the discussion on variant 1 (destructive) the key factors increasing the risk of Internet addiction in home environment were defined. They include: lack of interest of parents in their children’s online activity, lack of readiness for parenting in terms of modeling safe forms of participation in cyberspace and concealing by students their own activity in the Internet. The consequence of the lack of educational dialogue with parents is consolidation of risky online behaviors among students who do not treat them as dangerous. This results in low level of awareness of Internet addiction risk among students. The discussion of Variant 2 (constructive) allows us to determine the key factors in the family environment that reduce the risk of Internet addiction in students. These include the interest shown by their parents as well as their readiness for parenting. It has been also emphasized that the involvement of the parents does not go beyond controlling and limiting their children’s Internet activities according to the established rules of safe participation in cyberspace. The abovementioned variants 1 and 2 that determine the sequence of factors fostering or limiting Young people’s risky behaviors in the Internet present typical ways of parents’ behavior in the reality shaped by new media in Central East Europe. Countries such as Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Lithuania are at present in the phase of the development of the information society. This phase involves the increase in social awareness of the threats brought by the common implementation of new media. The previous phase of the methods of using IT solutions was characterized by a large amount of uncritical day-to-day use of IT equipment with an a priori assumption that it increases one’s productivity at work and in school and that it fosters interpersonal communication. Ever more often, the younger and the older generations of network media users notice the threats of improper use of the Internet. Raising awareness of e-threats is carried out through the following: the number of educational activities such as preventative programs introduced at all education stages, a rich offering of social workers’ trainings and the possibility to obtain financial funds for improving one’s competences. It is also
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expressed in the shift in the interest of media teachers, from the effectiveness of media in teaching to the critical influence of media on young users. The cultural difference between Central East Europe countries in relation to other countries is connected with the latter’s more experience regarding information society, higher awareness of online threats and developed tools to prevent the negative social aspects of technological progress. One of the symptoms of technological delay in Polish reality are changes observed in the functioning of young generation, that have been known in Western Europe for a decade. Their dynamics in the last ten years is very fast due to the rapidly progressing saturation of the social reality with new media which allow to undertake new forms of online activities typical for information society. Fast development of e-activities carried out by young people entail the increasing range of cyberspace threats. The latter have negative impact on their mental, social and moral development. In the context of attitude shift – from enthusiasm over new media to critical approach – the change of paradigm in media education is understandable. It is expressed in rejecting the paradigm of “ education of making up for lost time” to the advantage of the paradigm of “aware participation in cyberspace”. This shift reflects how social attitudes towards new media have evolved from a single-sided delight over the technological progress and strive to shape information competencies to increasing the awareness of online threats and promoting safe forms of new technologies use. The education style adopted by parents determines the behaviors of their children on the Internet. The liberal approach to education increases the probability of risky behaviors (Valcke, Bonte, De Wever & Rots, 2010). However, it is worth emphasizing that despite the lack of behaviors shaping the knowledge about the Internet among youth, the young generation may influence their parents in this regard (Grossbart, McConnell Hughes, Pryor & Yost, 2002). The typology presented by M. Mead in the 1970’s (Mead, 1970), which defines various views on culture, is extremely important in the context of safe education of new media at home. New media enforced a new look on socialization and education in the information society. The pre-figurative culture model allows us to notice that education on the safe use of network media requires from parents a specific sensitivity to the problems that the young network user may face. Yet, understanding the virtual world requires a great readiness to learn about new phenomena and socio-technical solutions. The role of parents is not limited to discovering the virtual space with children. First of all, it also requires the knowledge about the threats resulting from the wrong use of new media (Schurgin O'Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011; Livingstone & Bober, 2006; Leung & Lee, 2012). Uncontrolled Internet use by children and youth leads not only to internalizing improper habits (Strasburger, Jordan & Donnerstein, 2010) but also evokes health problems; e.g., sleep disorders (Eggermont & Van den Bulck, 2006). Parents are particularly responsible for the way their children spend free time. Furthermore, teaching children how to use media properly requires some reflection on how parents themselves use digital equipment (Shi-Jer, Ru-Chu & Hung-Tzu, 2010). It is worth pointing out that the convergence of new and old media has not led young people to give up television. It has increased their leisure activity based on the iconic message (Brindova, Pavelka, Ševčikova, Žežula, van Dijk, Reijneveld & Madarasova Geckova, 2014). However, in the context of variant 2 a question may be posed: Is Variant 3 possible, a variant in which the parents’ interest and readiness for parenting is not limited to controlling and limiting children’s activities in the Internet? Variants 1 and 2 described in the paper point out to dichotomic educational attitudes of parents: from restrictive, limiting free access to new media, to extremely liberal characterized by lack of any interference in young people’s online activities and even by
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showing no interest at all in this aspect of their everyday life. Both attitudes are a specific educational response to cyberspace threats. In variant 1 parents underestimate the significance of those threats and the risk of addiction. In variant 2, in turn, parents are aware of those threats but their educational impact takes on the form of unilateral communicating the rules of online activity to children, monitoring to what degree these rules are respected and limiting the scope and form of using the Internet if the imposed rules are breached. Even though variant 2 is being considered as constructive, it is far from situations where parents attempt to initiate educational dialogue in which both, them and their children are cooperating partners. It is not “participating” variant where both parties are fully-fledged participants of media education carried out in family environment.
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It seems interesting that variant 3 (participating) was not observed in the research study. This fact, according to the authors, requires further exploration. It is worth to emphasize that variant 3 identified with optimal model of parental behavior can occur only in those parents who treat their everyday contact with children seriously, show high pedagogical awareness and are convinced of the need to be engaged in educational parenting activities. Then, the abovementioned factors constitute a strategy for parental action that includes the following elements: interest in their children’s activities (A) and readiness for parenting (B, C, D). Fulfilling the above is necessary to strengthen mutual trust, which, in turn, guarantees that the established rules and regulations will be respected (E) and that conscious self-control and avoiding the risky behaviors (F) will be exercised by students.
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This media education strategy includes the following components:
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A. The attention of parents is focused on their children (students) and involves systematic and holistic interest in the latter’s on-line activities to the same degree as in their activities in the real world.
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B. Dialogue between children (students) and parents based on sharing their computer and Internet experiences and knowledge of the potential dangers and the methods to avoid them. It is a dialogue where both parents and children treat each other as partners.
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C. Agreement between children (students) and parents implies a mutual agreement that regulates, modifies and respects commonly established rules for children’s on-line activity —rules that govern all its forms and scopes. D. Openness, which means that children share with their parents their impressions and thoughts concerning their activities in cyberspace. Children do not conceal the content of their activities on the Internet. E. Trust, which means that parents trust their children to voluntarily respect the established rules of participation in cyberspace without the necessity of constant control; children, on the other hand, trust their parents to respect their privacy and discretion. F. Safety, which implies both children’s and parents’ shared confidence that the developed style of participation in cyberspace will protect children against the unwanted consequences, as they know and understand the causes and the sources of potential dangers and mechanisms of Internet addiction. By following the media education strategy presented in the variant 3, parents create conditions that foster the optimal participation of students in cyberspace. The strategy manifests itself through developed and shared linguistic codes and communication rules within the family. These form the basis for sharing and the understanding of the individual narratives about experiences in cyberspace. This, in turn, leads to constructing the common narrative that sustains the family bonds. The educational strategies created by the parents
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT may be then further developed, based on dialogue and negotiation of personal “histories” constructed upon parents’ and children’s shared participation in the virtual reality. References
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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Highlights
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1) correlation between the ways media are used by youth and participation of significant others in education process 2) the type educational activity of parents determines the type of behaviors in e-space 3) low media competencies of parents and lack of interest in the on-line activity of their children generate the possibllity for social, legal and mental health threats to occur
S0190-7409(15)30030-X doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.07.022 CYSR 2742
To appear in:
Children and Youth Services Review
Received date: Revised date: Accepted date:
31 July 2014 30 July 2015 30 July 2015
Please cite this article as: Wasi´ nski, A. & Tomczyk, L ., Factors Reducing the Risk of Internet Addiction in Young People in their Home Environment, Children and Youth Services Review (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.07.022
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FACTORS REDUCING THE RISK OF INTERNET ADDICTION IN YOUNG PEOPLE IN THEIR HOME ENVIRONMENT
PhD, Dean, ul. Pandy 13, 02-202 Warszawa E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.wspkorczak.eu Phone: +48 509192764
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Łukasz Tomczyk Pedagogical University of Cracow, Cracow, Poland
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Arkadiusz Wąsiński Janusz Korczak Pedagogical University in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
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PhDr. Ing, Lecturer, ul. Podchorążych 2, 30-084 Kraków E-mail: [email protected] (Corresponding author) Website: http://www.up.krakow.pl/main/eng/ Phone: +48 503738988
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FACTORS REDUCING THE RISK OF INTERNET ADDICTION IN YOUNG PEOPLE IN THEIR HOME ENVIRONMENT
Abstract:
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Contemporary research fails to provide insight into the threats that Internet activities pose to young people and the risk of Internet addiction, examined both from the perspective of the relationships that young people have with their parents and the latter’s readiness for parenting. Researchers emphasize that the way young people function in cyberspace and the choices they make regarding their use of Internet resources, computer games or software depend mostly on communication and socialization in their home environment during their upbringing. A diagnostic study has been conducted with middle school students to examine the nature (resulting from this particular stage of their development) of their relationships with parents. Although young people are generally selfsufficient, in the majority of life aspects they depend heavily on their parents. Cyberspace gives them an opportunity to become independent more quickly, but it also poses threats of which young people are often unaware. The analysis of the study results presents a two-variant model of parental behavior that determines the quality of children’s Internet activities. Both interest shown by parents and their readiness for parenting have turned out to be the critical factors in reducing the risk of Internet addiction. The conclusion, in turn, considers other theoretical premises for the possibility of a third variant of parental behavior, which was described according to the strategy that creates conditions that favor the optimal participation of students in cyberspace.
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Key words: Internet addiction, middle school students, risky and safe behaviors, readiness for parenting, Internet addiction conditioning factors, media education, home environment.
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Introduction
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Internet addiction (Şenormancı, Konkan & Sungur, 2012)1 is defined as the addiction to new, Internet and mobile digital technologies that comprise cyberspace. It involves gradual reduction of individual self-determination, which eventually leads to the loss of control over one’s individual behavior. The important characteristic of this addiction is that it gradually focuses one’s everyday activities on the virtual dimension of reality. This means that addicted individuals abandon their everyday activities and devote their time to the activities that they have discovered in cyberspace (Ferguson & Olson, 2013). Internet addiction is thus a specific state of mind in which addicted individuals lose their grasp of their real existence. They are seized with an urge to participate constantly in what is, in fact, illusory and deceptive and what leads to the gradual loss of their ability to make independent life choices. With time, it destroys their interpersonal relationships and undermines or even hinders the development of their personalities in various areas (Young, 2007). Thus, Internet addiction in contemporary young people reveals itself in them being deeply intellectually and emotionally absorbed by the virtual world. It disturbs their development and functioning, gradually disorganizing the key aspects of their life activities. With time, this deepens and preserves young persons’ conflict in relation to the outer world. This conflict can be observed in the following three layers: interpersonal – addicted person increasingly antagonizes themselves with their own social environment which does not accept pathological use of cyberspace; 1
The literature offers a number of names for the addiction to technology, e.g.: Internet addiction, computer addiction, cyber addiction, net addiction, cyberspace addiction, technological addiction.
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intrapsychic – along with the progressing addiction, the awareness of loss of control over one’s own activity in cyberspace and helplessness in changing this state of matters increases; this, in turn, intensifies the sense of disintegration of addict’s psychic life and dissatisfaction with oneself; existential – pathological use of cyberspace entails radical neglect of other activities in the key areas of life such as self-development and self-fulfillment connected with e.g. education, work, creative activity, hobby, leisure (Griffiths, 2000).
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Internet addiction involves mental crossing of a symbolic boundary associated with the ability to exercise one’s own free will. In this process, individuals who consciously use new media to achieve the aims they have set for themselves unconsciously lose their distance from the virtual dimension of reality. The more they want to experience the pleasures available in the digital world, the more submissive they become to the urge to remain in cyberspace (Young, 2004; Juszczyk, 2004). The characteristic features of the addiction include not only the very fact of the excessive use of cyberspace, which marginalizes other forms of actual and anticipated activity, but also the compulsive urge to separate or even escape from reality (Peele, 2000).
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Kimberly Young emphasizes that it is necessary to treat Internet addiction seriously, and she demonstrates that it does not differ from other types of addictions (Young, 1998; Kim & Kim, 2002). Internet addiction is similar to drug addiction as it involves the following typical stages: a) “overestimation” of the object of addiction (the object thus becomes a priority); b) mood swings of the addicted individual; c) increasing tolerance of the preferred type of activity in the digital world; d) cyberspace craving symptoms; and e) ever more frequent returns to the pathological form of activity to satisfy the craving (Young & Klausing, 2007). The addiction leads to the loss of detachment from the digital world, and it also radically increases one’s tendency to withdraw from everyday tasks, duties, games and contacts in social reality (Ngai, 2007). However, this means not only the change of proportion between various forms of activity in the real and the virtual world, but also mental transformation of the addicted person, who gradually loses contact with reality and people from his or her family, neighborhood and school (Griffiths, 2004; Young, 1998).
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Internet addiction does not develop in a social vacuum, but in one’s home environment. Home is associated with such categories as: close relationships, presence, genuine conversation, shared history, family traditions and upbringing. Home is also a place where young people learn how to perceive, recognize and assess the world around them (Cole, 2011). Yet, the closeness and presence of one’s family members, which holds the family together, cannot be taken for granted. Members of a family may lose their sense of unity and succumb to spiritual solitude, which disintegrates the family. As a result, people separate themselves from each other in their parallel realities. Such a situation develops a sense of confusion and loss in young people and reduces their sense of distance from cyberspace, which in turn becomes an attractive alternative to the real world. Thus, spiritual isolation creates conditions that foster the development of Internet addiction in the youngest family members. The risk of Internet addiction among young people is connected with a unilateral and uncritical attitude of their parents toward new online media. If parents are convinced that the potential ICT (information and communication technologies) possibilities guarantee at the same time positive impact on cyberspace users, they clearly communicate to their children that using new media is only safe. Yet, the fact of having access to online information resources, stimulating cognitive skills, improving reading fluency or developing mathematic skills is not the only way young people’s psyche is influenced.
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT First media socialization and the attitude toward new media among the youngest users is developed in their home environment (Rideout, 2014), which assigns meaning (value) to time spent on the Internet. Parents’ knowledge and the rules for safe media use shape the first habits of the use of electronic media among the youngest family members.
Methods
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The international research study, EU Kids Online, was conducted in 25 European countries (N=25142) and reveals that parents’ knowledge regarding the functioning of electronic media, which translates into the intentional educational processes, reduces factors that determine electronic threats. Duerager and Livingstone (2012) point out that complete, consistent and aware participation of meaningful persons in the social media space limits risky behaviors (such as Internet addiction, cyberbullying, and initiating risky relations) among the young network users. According to the EU Kids Online research study (Duerager & Livingstone, 2012), which outlined the rules of electronic media use by adolescents and persons who are interested in cyberspace, Polish parents as well as families from the following countries participated: Portugal, Finland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary. The participation of the meaningful persons in the mew media space is characterized by: parents’ awareness of which Internet websites are visited by their children, the way adolescents interact in online communities, contact with known and unknown schoolmates, using online communicators, software protecting from malware or viruses, parental control programs or setting the rules for Internet use (time spent on the Internet, downloading software or audiovisual resources) (Livingstone, Haddon, Görzig & Ólafsson, 2011). Paradoxically, Internet addiction in children is fostered by their parents, who by agreeing to the segmentation of family life lose both the readiness and the practical opportunities to make a pedagogical impact on their lives. As a result, young individuals, unaware of the fact that they are being influenced by hidden psychological mechanisms forcing them to “stay online” all of the time (Mikuláš, Fichnova & Wojciechowski, 2012; Pyżalski, 2012), bear all of the consequences of the uncontrollable and unpredictable results of self-socialization (Holtkamp, 2011; Kopecký, Szotkowski & Krejčí, 2012). The following opposing factors increase the risk of young people’s vulnerability to the dangers of the digital world and the threat of Internet addiction: preferring digital forms of communication in cyberspace (Goban-Klas, 2011; Blackwell, Lauricella, Conway & Wartella, 2014); a relatively low awareness of their parents regarding the risky forms of children’s Internet activities (Tadeusiewicz, 2007); and finally, the lack of readiness among parents to prepare children for safe and quality participation in cyberspace, which seems even more important than the others (Gencer & Koc, 2012). The study is based on the assumption that the factors reducing the risk of Internet addiction in young people in their home environment include: readiness of the parents to participate in cyberspace together with their children, the types and range of the desirable forms of children’s Internet activities, linguistic and communication rules established in regard to the Internet activities of family members and parents’ preferred socializing and education styles. As a result, we have formulated the following main research problem: What factors rooted in the family environment and connected with the spiritual dimension of closeness and collaboration between the family members reduce the risk of Internet addiction in middle school students? Further considerations have allowed us to clarify the problem in the form of the following research questions:
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 1. What kind of approach toward Internet activities do middle school students expect from their parents? 2. To what extent do the Internet activities of middle school students become a subject of the conversations with their parents?
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3. To what extent are everyday Internet activities of middle school students monitored by their parents?
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4. What meanings do middle school students associate have with their participation in network communities? To what extent can everyday activities of middle school students be qualified as safe?
6. What are the middle school students’ attitudes toward the threat of Internet addiction?
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We conducted the study among middle school students in the city of Bielsko-Biała, Poland. A pilot study preceded the current study in 2009 with the support from the Local Education Authority in Katowice. The diagnostic study involved an online questionnaire, and 368 students (175 boys and 193 girls) took part in the survey, which accounts for 7.05% of the entire population of all middle school students in Bielsko-Biała (its population was 5216 people in 2010; USTAT, 2012). The figures obtained from the Statistical Office demonstrate that the population of students of ages 15 to 19 has an equal number of males and females. The research sample has fulfilled all the necessary conditions since, according to the calculations, the minimum of the research sample for such populations, with the confidence factor of 0.95 and an error rate no higher than 5% (α=0.05), should be 358 (Rubacha, 2008).
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The study was conducted with the use of an on-line questionnaire, “The scale of risky behaviors in the new media space,” which was developed together with the Local Education Authority in Katowice (the institution under the Ministry of Education). It was preceded by an introductory letter that explained the goals of the study and encouraged respondents to take part in it. The questionnaire was designed by referring to the theoretical basis regarding Internet threats among children and youth that can be found in the most popular Polish media education schoolbooks (Morbizer, 2007; Siemieniecki, 2008; Pyżalski, 2011). The construction of “The scale of risky behaviors” has been verified by the pilot study (approx. 9% of the whole population, namely middle school/second grade students) with the use of quantitative research strategy standards (Nachmias & Nachmias, 2007). We conducted the analysis of the data that allows us to answer the above research questions by means of the Yule correlation coefficient, φ, and the statistical chi-squared test, χ2 (Rubacha, 2008; Pilch & Baumann, 2001). The direction of correlations between the variables was set through interpretation of crosstabs in STATISTICA program. Most of the analyzed variables are dichotomic or three-stage. The applied tool is to detect risky behaviors in virtual and family space. The tool does not measure how deep those risky behaviors are but only signalizes their occurrence. Interpretation of certain dependencies was also possible through references to the results of previous qualitative research obtained thanks to open questions included in the questionnaire “The scale of risky behaviors in new media space”. Results
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT On the basis of the statistical analysis, important correlation coefficients have been identified in each question. The detailed presentation of the research results corresponds with the scope of the research questions. Table 1
Presentation of significant statistical results
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P1: Openness of the online activity of students and education activity of parents Parents’ interest in the Internet activity of their children correlates with students’ expectation about the passive attitude of parents
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Both content downloaded from the Internet and content received from on-line friends are hidden before parents
χ2=107; Φ =0,56; p<0,05 χ2=88,3; Φ =0,51; p<0,05
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P2: Establishing the rules for on-line activity together with parents Lack of commonly established rules for on-line activity corresponds with the uncontrolled: χ2=63,14; Φ =0,43; p<0,05 a) use of computer and digital devices, and o n-line web browsing b) use of computer and digital devices, and choices regarding computer games χ2=18,97; Φ =0,25; p<0,05 c) web browsing and choices regarding computer games χ2=61,04; Φ =0,42; p<0,05 d) web browsing and using on-line communicators χ2=76,73; Φ =0,48; p<0,05 P3: Parental control over students’ on-line activity Lack of control over student’ on-line activity correlates with the lack of limitations regarding: χ2=29; Φ =0,29; p<0,05 a) when they use computer b) how much time they spend using computer χ2=39,1; Φ =0,34; p<0,05 Lack of restrictions regarding software correlates with the lack of limitation regarding: χ2=82,3; Φ =0,49; p<0,05 a) selection of software b) movies watched on-line χ2=63,1; Φ =0,43; p<0,05 c) software χ2=32,5; Φ =0,31; p<0,05 d) the content of movies watched on-line χ2=32,8; Φ =0,31; p<0,05 P4: Students’ attitude towards the Internet and participation in on-line community services On-line contacts with peers are treated as an alternative to the traditional contacts when the following correlation occurs: χ2=33,4; Φ =0,31; p<0,05 1) Internet is an important source of knowledge about the life and the world and 2) Internet provides unlimited opportunities for entering into contacts with strangers on-line 3) Internet gives the sense of free dialogue with other network users and 4) Internet is an important source of χ2=44,19; Φ =0,36; p<0,05 knowledge about the life and the world 5) Internet provides unforgettable experiences and 6) Internet provides unlimited opportunities for entering into χ2=31,09; Φ =0,3; p<0,05 contacts with strangers on-line 7) Internet provided unforgettable experiences and 8) Internet gives the sense of free dialogue with other network χ2=43,15; Φ =0,36; p<0,05 users Attitude towards the Internet as a place to meet friends correlates with treating it as place of good fun χ2=46,89; Φ =0,37; p<0,05 P5: Typical forms of students’ on-line participation Daily correspondence with strangers on-line correlates with the fact of meeting someone new in the real world Regular computer game playing:
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a) in the night - correlates with playing till down b) in the morning - correlates with playing till noon c) in the morning - correlates with playing at noon P6: Students’ attitude towards the threats connected with Internet addiction A proper understanding of Internet addiction mechanisms occurs in correlation with choosing computer applications chosen parents on a day-to-day basis Concerns about the actual risk of addiction are in low correlation to being aware of the difficulties with finishing online activity at planned time Concerns about the actual risk of addiction are in low correlation to the fact of knowing other computer addict
χ2=31,27; Φ =0,3; p<0,05 χ2=26,13; Φ =0,28; p<0,05 χ2=42,55; Φ =0,35; p<0,05 χ2=23,79; Φ =0,27; p<0,05 χ2=28,2; Φ =0,29; p<0,05 χ2=13,28; Φ =0,2; p<0,05 χ2=8,41; Φ =0,16; p<0,05
Diagram 1 presents the changeable polarization of the obtained results. They indicate, in P1, P2 and P3, a high level of risky behaviors in the students involved in the study. The complex aspect of parents’ isolation from their children’s day-to-day online activities are the main cause of such behaviors. However, the level of risky behaviors decreases in P4 and P5 to the advantage of safe behaviors. Such change in the behavior of students, who prefer more freedom in designing their individual online activity and independence from parents, is caused by their relatively large distance towards online communities and their preferences as for healthy style of using new Internet technologies. It is worth to emphasize a regularity revealed in P4: positive attitude of students toward Internet as a source of knowledge about life and the world, and a space for free social and entertainment activity with other network users does not lead, in general, to considering it as the alternative but rather as complementary to traditional peer contacts. The obtained
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Graphic presentation of the safe behaviours indicator in relation to risky behaviours in cyberspace
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Diagram 1
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results, however, point out to the group of about 20% of the respondents who treat virtual contacts as an alternative to traditional ones. Category P5, in turn, indicates another causes of dominant safe behaviors. They are: relatively large caution in developing online relations with strangers and definite preference of a healthy style of conducting day-to-day online activities, the latter involving regular sleep and waking periods when using IT. It is likely that such caution in this matter is the result of cyclic social campaigns that have been carried out for 15 years in Polish mainstream media and online services. They shape the social awareness of cyberspace threats in psychophysical, social and legal aspect.
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Discussion
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The level of risky behaviors increases slightly in P6, compared to P4 and P5, even though it still remains at a low level. Shaping proper mechanisms of understanding the phenomenon of Internet addiction positively influences the awareness of the lack of distance towards one’s own online activity. This takes place during conscious selection of computer applications carried out with parents. The factor that increases the level of risky behaviors is relatively low awareness of the risk of becoming addicted among students. The knowledge regarding the mechanisms that deepen Internet addiction is not referred to their own behaviors in cyberspace and does not change their beliefs that addition may be not only other people’s problem but also their own. In this context, neglecting the risk of Internet addiction is quite common among students. The analysis of the study’s results leads to a two-variant model of students’ Internet activities (Diagram 1). The model reveals the regularity according to which parents’ commitment to their own strategy of educating children on the media and through the media translates into children’s awareness and avoidance of risky behaviors in cyberspace. However, if parents fail to make a pedagogical impact and allow their children to use the Internet freely, they expose them to the risk of such behaviors. The key factors that differentiate the quality of Internet activities are the interest of the parents and their readiness to make a pedagogical impact to help their children participate in cyberspace safely and become aware Internet users. Scheme1
Variant 1 “destructive” - increased risk of occurrence of Internet addiction symptoms among the students involved in the study
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Variant 1
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The lack of interest of parents in their children’s Internet activities connected with their lack of readiness for parenting creates the conditions that foster risky behaviors in young Internet users. Parents’ passive attitudes and absence make their children become independent as they cross the boundary between the real and virtual world. The risk involved in the students’ on-line activities stems from their low awareness of the dangers and of the actual threat of Internet addiction. Students frequently make a mistake in that they attach positive values to typically addictive behaviors, which they fail to identify as an addiction. The lack of a critical approach to participation in cyberspace prevents them from detaching themselves from it. Therefore, they consider behaviors that lead to addiction to be desirable and not harmful. The low awareness in this regard that results from parents’ lack of readiness to educate sustains students’ belief that there is no real threat of Internet addiction. Variant 2
The constant presence of parents who monitor their children’s Internet activities creates children who are Internet users aware of the potential on-line threats and the risk of Internet addiction. Parents use the strategy for counteracting these risks by either blocking or prohibiting the activities that they find dangerous. However, they fail to initiate a dialogue that would be aimed at a deeper understanding of behaviors that they consider safe. Instead, they expect to raise their children’s awareness of the sources and types of on-line dangers and the mechanisms of Internet addiction by prohibiting certain behaviors in cyberspace and by denying access to applications and web pages. The response from this group of students reveals their awareness of the threats related to Internet addiction. The latter is considered as radical loss of self-control over one’s own behavior and redirecting almost all activity into cyberspace. Thus, parents’ educational efforts, even though they are restrictive, allow the students to understand the mechanisms of Internet addiction and also to identify behaviors classified as risky and inappropriate.
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Variant 2 “constructive” - Internet addiction risk factors according to parents’ involvement in education and the quality of participation in cyberspace
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Scheme 2
Conclusions
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In the discussion on variant 1 (destructive) the key factors increasing the risk of Internet addiction in home environment were defined. They include: lack of interest of parents in their children’s online activity, lack of readiness for parenting in terms of modeling safe forms of participation in cyberspace and concealing by students their own activity in the Internet. The consequence of the lack of educational dialogue with parents is consolidation of risky online behaviors among students who do not treat them as dangerous. This results in low level of awareness of Internet addiction risk among students. The discussion of Variant 2 (constructive) allows us to determine the key factors in the family environment that reduce the risk of Internet addiction in students. These include the interest shown by their parents as well as their readiness for parenting. It has been also emphasized that the involvement of the parents does not go beyond controlling and limiting their children’s Internet activities according to the established rules of safe participation in cyberspace. The abovementioned variants 1 and 2 that determine the sequence of factors fostering or limiting Young people’s risky behaviors in the Internet present typical ways of parents’ behavior in the reality shaped by new media in Central East Europe. Countries such as Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Lithuania are at present in the phase of the development of the information society. This phase involves the increase in social awareness of the threats brought by the common implementation of new media. The previous phase of the methods of using IT solutions was characterized by a large amount of uncritical day-to-day use of IT equipment with an a priori assumption that it increases one’s productivity at work and in school and that it fosters interpersonal communication. Ever more often, the younger and the older generations of network media users notice the threats of improper use of the Internet. Raising awareness of e-threats is carried out through the following: the number of educational activities such as preventative programs introduced at all education stages, a rich offering of social workers’ trainings and the possibility to obtain financial funds for improving one’s competences. It is also
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expressed in the shift in the interest of media teachers, from the effectiveness of media in teaching to the critical influence of media on young users. The cultural difference between Central East Europe countries in relation to other countries is connected with the latter’s more experience regarding information society, higher awareness of online threats and developed tools to prevent the negative social aspects of technological progress. One of the symptoms of technological delay in Polish reality are changes observed in the functioning of young generation, that have been known in Western Europe for a decade. Their dynamics in the last ten years is very fast due to the rapidly progressing saturation of the social reality with new media which allow to undertake new forms of online activities typical for information society. Fast development of e-activities carried out by young people entail the increasing range of cyberspace threats. The latter have negative impact on their mental, social and moral development. In the context of attitude shift – from enthusiasm over new media to critical approach – the change of paradigm in media education is understandable. It is expressed in rejecting the paradigm of “ education of making up for lost time” to the advantage of the paradigm of “aware participation in cyberspace”. This shift reflects how social attitudes towards new media have evolved from a single-sided delight over the technological progress and strive to shape information competencies to increasing the awareness of online threats and promoting safe forms of new technologies use. The education style adopted by parents determines the behaviors of their children on the Internet. The liberal approach to education increases the probability of risky behaviors (Valcke, Bonte, De Wever & Rots, 2010). However, it is worth emphasizing that despite the lack of behaviors shaping the knowledge about the Internet among youth, the young generation may influence their parents in this regard (Grossbart, McConnell Hughes, Pryor & Yost, 2002). The typology presented by M. Mead in the 1970’s (Mead, 1970), which defines various views on culture, is extremely important in the context of safe education of new media at home. New media enforced a new look on socialization and education in the information society. The pre-figurative culture model allows us to notice that education on the safe use of network media requires from parents a specific sensitivity to the problems that the young network user may face. Yet, understanding the virtual world requires a great readiness to learn about new phenomena and socio-technical solutions. The role of parents is not limited to discovering the virtual space with children. First of all, it also requires the knowledge about the threats resulting from the wrong use of new media (Schurgin O'Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011; Livingstone & Bober, 2006; Leung & Lee, 2012). Uncontrolled Internet use by children and youth leads not only to internalizing improper habits (Strasburger, Jordan & Donnerstein, 2010) but also evokes health problems; e.g., sleep disorders (Eggermont & Van den Bulck, 2006). Parents are particularly responsible for the way their children spend free time. Furthermore, teaching children how to use media properly requires some reflection on how parents themselves use digital equipment (Shi-Jer, Ru-Chu & Hung-Tzu, 2010). It is worth pointing out that the convergence of new and old media has not led young people to give up television. It has increased their leisure activity based on the iconic message (Brindova, Pavelka, Ševčikova, Žežula, van Dijk, Reijneveld & Madarasova Geckova, 2014). However, in the context of variant 2 a question may be posed: Is Variant 3 possible, a variant in which the parents’ interest and readiness for parenting is not limited to controlling and limiting children’s activities in the Internet? Variants 1 and 2 described in the paper point out to dichotomic educational attitudes of parents: from restrictive, limiting free access to new media, to extremely liberal characterized by lack of any interference in young people’s online activities and even by
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showing no interest at all in this aspect of their everyday life. Both attitudes are a specific educational response to cyberspace threats. In variant 1 parents underestimate the significance of those threats and the risk of addiction. In variant 2, in turn, parents are aware of those threats but their educational impact takes on the form of unilateral communicating the rules of online activity to children, monitoring to what degree these rules are respected and limiting the scope and form of using the Internet if the imposed rules are breached. Even though variant 2 is being considered as constructive, it is far from situations where parents attempt to initiate educational dialogue in which both, them and their children are cooperating partners. It is not “participating” variant where both parties are fully-fledged participants of media education carried out in family environment.
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It seems interesting that variant 3 (participating) was not observed in the research study. This fact, according to the authors, requires further exploration. It is worth to emphasize that variant 3 identified with optimal model of parental behavior can occur only in those parents who treat their everyday contact with children seriously, show high pedagogical awareness and are convinced of the need to be engaged in educational parenting activities. Then, the abovementioned factors constitute a strategy for parental action that includes the following elements: interest in their children’s activities (A) and readiness for parenting (B, C, D). Fulfilling the above is necessary to strengthen mutual trust, which, in turn, guarantees that the established rules and regulations will be respected (E) and that conscious self-control and avoiding the risky behaviors (F) will be exercised by students.
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This media education strategy includes the following components:
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A. The attention of parents is focused on their children (students) and involves systematic and holistic interest in the latter’s on-line activities to the same degree as in their activities in the real world.
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B. Dialogue between children (students) and parents based on sharing their computer and Internet experiences and knowledge of the potential dangers and the methods to avoid them. It is a dialogue where both parents and children treat each other as partners.
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C. Agreement between children (students) and parents implies a mutual agreement that regulates, modifies and respects commonly established rules for children’s on-line activity —rules that govern all its forms and scopes. D. Openness, which means that children share with their parents their impressions and thoughts concerning their activities in cyberspace. Children do not conceal the content of their activities on the Internet. E. Trust, which means that parents trust their children to voluntarily respect the established rules of participation in cyberspace without the necessity of constant control; children, on the other hand, trust their parents to respect their privacy and discretion. F. Safety, which implies both children’s and parents’ shared confidence that the developed style of participation in cyberspace will protect children against the unwanted consequences, as they know and understand the causes and the sources of potential dangers and mechanisms of Internet addiction. By following the media education strategy presented in the variant 3, parents create conditions that foster the optimal participation of students in cyberspace. The strategy manifests itself through developed and shared linguistic codes and communication rules within the family. These form the basis for sharing and the understanding of the individual narratives about experiences in cyberspace. This, in turn, leads to constructing the common narrative that sustains the family bonds. The educational strategies created by the parents
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT may be then further developed, based on dialogue and negotiation of personal “histories” constructed upon parents’ and children’s shared participation in the virtual reality. References
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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Highlights
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1) correlation between the ways media are used by youth and participation of significant others in education process 2) the type educational activity of parents determines the type of behaviors in e-space 3) low media competencies of parents and lack of interest in the on-line activity of their children generate the possibllity for social, legal and mental health threats to occur