Abstract
Digital parenting tools, such as child-tracking technologies, play an ever-increasing role in contemporary child rearing. To explore opinions and experiences related to the use of such tracking devices, we conducted Q methodology and a semi-structured individual interview-study with Estonian parents (n=20) and their 8- to 13-year-old pre-teens (n=20). Our aim was to study how such caring dataveillance was rationalized within the families, and to explore the dominant parenting values associated with the practice. Relying upon communication privacy management theory, the issues of privacy related to such intimate surveillance were also studied. Three factors relating to the use of tracking technologies were extracted from both parents (Tech-Trusting Parent, Cautious Parent and Careful Authoritarian Parent) and pre-teens (Compliant Child, Autonomous Child, and Privacy-Sensitive Child). Tracking technologies were viewed as parental aids that made it possible to ease anxieties and provide assurance to parents and children alike. Although children did not associate the use of tracking technologies with intrusion on privacy, they expected to have a chance to coordinate their privacy boundaries.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Editorial
- Through mature and yet fresh eyes: Researching emerging issues in the field of children and media
- Articles
- Investigating the digital media engagements of very young children at home: Reflecting on methodology and ethics
- Why children’s news matters: The case of CBBC Newsround in the UK
- Relating adolescents’ exposure to legacy and digital news media and intergroup contact to their attitudes towards immigrants
- Nationwide implementation of media literacy training sessions on internet safety
- Exploring European childrenʼs self-reported data on online aggression
- Caring dataveillance and the construction of “good parenting”: Estonian parents’ and pre-teens’ reflections on the use of tracking technologies
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Editorial
- Through mature and yet fresh eyes: Researching emerging issues in the field of children and media
- Articles
- Investigating the digital media engagements of very young children at home: Reflecting on methodology and ethics
- Why children’s news matters: The case of CBBC Newsround in the UK
- Relating adolescents’ exposure to legacy and digital news media and intergroup contact to their attitudes towards immigrants
- Nationwide implementation of media literacy training sessions on internet safety
- Exploring European childrenʼs self-reported data on online aggression
- Caring dataveillance and the construction of “good parenting”: Estonian parents’ and pre-teens’ reflections on the use of tracking technologies