Parental Awareness and Mediation of Children´s Internet Use in Kuwait

With the rapid increase of internet use by children worldwide, and the diversity of electronic tools used to surf the Internet, parents are becoming more concerned than ever about the safety of their children and their protection from harmful materials and risks associated with their Internet use. The study aims to investigate parental involvement in children´s Internet use, their awareness and mediation strategies to protect their children from harmful materials and risks and ensure their positive use of the Internet. Results showed that children´s use of the Internet in Kuwait is still mostly for entertainment purposes. Parents awareness and mediation in their children´s use of the Internet are highly positively related and most parents tend to take restrictive measures (limiting, restricting, forbidding) more than positive steps (discussing, explaining, helping) to mediate in their children´s activities on the Internet. It was concluded that the understanding of parental opinions and mediations based on these different strategies might contribute for a more productive design of public awareness campaigns and tools aimed at enlightening parents and children about the positive use of the Internet.