Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Level Up! Refreshing Parental Mediation Theory For Our Digital Media Landscape, Hee Jhee Jiow, Sun Sun Lim, Julian Lin

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article argues that parental mediation theory is rooted in television studies and mustbe refined to accommodate the fast-changing media landscape that is populated by com-plex and intensively used media forms such as video games, social media, and mobile apps.Through a study of parental mediation of children’s video game play, we identify the lim-itations of parental mediation theory as applied to current trends in children’s media useand suggest how it can be enhanced. This study seeks to improve parental mediation the-ory’s descriptive and explanatory strength by identifying and outlining the specific activitiesthat parents undertake as they impose their media strategies. …