nineteen - Effectiveness of teachers’ and peers’ mediation in supporting opportunities and reducing risks online

Summary

Introduction

A distinctive feature of the EU Kids Online survey is that it asked children about mediation of internet use practised by parents, teachers and peers (Livingstone et al, 2011). This chapter starts from the assumption that these three agents, by virtue of their different social relationships with children, play distinct roles in influencing children’s online experiences, both positively and negatively. The chapter evaluates the effectiveness of mediation by teachers and peers in supporting online opportunities and in reducing risks and harm.

Teachers’ mediation

Parents often expect teachers to act as coach or facilitator in relation to their children's internet use, in other words to act ‘in loco parentis’ (Wishart, 2004, p 200). There is a quite long tradition of research examining the role of parental mediation of their children's (new) media use. Work on teachers’ mediation, however, is more recent (cf Hasebrink et al, 2009; Inan et al, 2010; Zhao et al, 2011), and most studies (see, for example, Wishart, 2004; Berrier, 2007) do not differentiate between different types of mediation, or ask how teachers’ mediation is related to online risks and harm experienced by children.

Research indicates that teachers are concerned mainly with internet safety. Rather than engaging in active mediation, teachers tend to apply rules that restrict children's internet use, but which also hinder the development of good internet safety practices and reduce the chances for children to explore online opportunities (Wishart, 2004).

Although the support given by teachers has been shown to have a weak influence on children's intrinsic motivation to go online, some of the motivation for children to explore the internet is related to use of this technology for school assignments (Zhao et al, 2011). In relation to more advanced usage than is required for schoolwork, however, teachers’ mediation is the weakest predictor of children's online content creation (Kalmus et al, 2009b).

Peer mediation

The role played by peers may also be important for shaping the online practices of young people (cf Hasebrink et al, 2009; see also Chapter 1 in this volume), although relatively little is known about their influence. Livingstone and Bober (2005) found that compared to parents and teachers, peers may be less important for help related to using the internet, but may have a significant impact on young people’s intrinsic motivations for going online (Zhao et al, 2011).