Parental Media Mediation and Digital Security in Adolescent Students

Abstract

Adolescents face multiple risks on the internet. Whereas adolescents are expected to develop digital-security behaviors, and becoming digital citizens to protect themselves from threatening online risks, parents play a critical role on such development. The present study aimed to analyze the relationship between parental active and restrictive mediation practices and digital-security behaviors in adolescents. The sample comprised 480 secondary school students aged between 11 and 15 (M age = 12.88, DE = 0.94). Multiple linear regression was calculated. The results showed that active and restrictive parental mediation positively correlated with adolescents’ digital-security. Thus, we argue that parental mediation is critical to explaining adolescents’ online behaviors.