International Journal of Sub-Saharan African Research (IJSSAR)

Background There is growing concern among stakeholders on the trend of use and misuse of new media among young people especially secondary school students. Media literacy scholars recommend parental mediation as an effective antidote to possible misuse of digital media among young ones. Whereas, studies have adopted parental media strategies in examining how parent attempt the control of digital media use among young people, few studies have probed into the perception of and specific preference for each of the parental mediation types and the implication of these preference on digital media use among young people.
Objective: This study investigated parental mediation strategies and social media use among secondary school students in Lagos, Nigeria. It specifically examined the parental mediation strategies (Active, Restrictive, Technical) adopted by parents to control their wards; examined parents’ background different parental mediation strategies on social media use on their wards.
Method: Through cross sectional, descriptive survey research design and a combination of stratified and simple random sampling procedure, a sample of 384 parents in the selected local government areas of Lagos State was drawn for the study. Using SPSS version 25, descriptive analysis was carried out through tables and percentages as well as correlation and regression analysis.
Result: The findings reveal that the parent adopts the three mediation strategies in controlling their wards use of the social media. However, further analyses present a clear hierarchy of parental mediation strategies, with restrictive and technical approaches constituting the primary line of defense, while active mediation, particularly its discursive element, serves a secondary, more inconsistent role in adoption of the strategies by parents.
Conclusion: From the results of this study, it is concluded that digital parenting is underlined by fear of misuse of the new digital media hence the preference for the application of restrictive strategies by the parents in this study. This means that parents are not yet in tune with building literacy competence of their wards through media literacy education that leads to resilience among the younger when exposed to media messages.
Unique Contribution: This study contributes to enriching existing literature on parental media theory and strategies by providing context specific. It supports the emerging research focus towards building parental mediation model that fits into the reality of new media environment. By exploring the application of the parental mediation strategies in digital media environment characterised by social media platforms, the study fills a critical gap in theory and practice that warrant attention of policy makers, practitioners and educators.
Key Recommendation: This study recommends a reconsideration of the practice of parental mediation by investigating the long-term outcomes of this control-dominant model on children's digital resilience, self-regulation, and media literacy. Equally, policy makers and educators must take concrete steps beyond promoting mere tool adoption to persuade the parent to adopt a strategy that helps the younger ones to build media literacy competence. Intervention programs must actively encourage parents to integrate discursive active mediation alongside restrictive and technical strategies.