CYBERPSYCHOLOGY & BEHAVIOR

Volume 10, Number 5, 2007

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2007.9975

Childrens Internet Use in a Family Context: Influence

on Family Relationships and Parental Mediation
SOOK-JUNG LEE, M.A. and YOUNG-GIL CHAE, M.A.

ABSTRACT
We conducted a survey of 222 fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade Korean children to examine (a)
whether childrens Internet use influences declines in family time and family communication and (b) how parental mediation techniques are related to childrens online activities. According to the findings, total time using the Internet was related to perceived declines in family time but not related to family communication. The influence of the Internet on family
time and family communication differed by the type of childrens online activities. The analysis of the relationship between parental mediation techniques and childrens online activities indicated that parents recommendation of useful Web sites and co-using were positively
related to frequency of childrens educational online activities. However, parental restrictions
on time and Web sites did not alter childrens actual Internet usage.
INTRODUCTION

OME IS THE PRIMARY PLACE where children use

the Internet. By 2004, 74% of American young
people ages 8 to 18 had access to an Internet connection at home.1 In Korea, approximately 95% of
young people ages 6 to 19 use the Internet, and 92%
of them use it at home.2 Korean young people consider the Internet more necessary than television.
For them, the Internet is a medium with multiple
functions, such as entertainment, education, and
communication.3 The universal presence of a computer and the Internet in the Korean home environment raises two important questions: (1) how Internet use influences family relationships and (2)
how the family context, particularly parental mediation, shapes childrens Internet use.

How does childrens Internet use influence

family relationships?
While there is a growing body of literature on the
impact of the Internet on family relationships, only

a small number of studies address childrens Internet use and its impact on their family relationships.
Moreover, the prior studies present two contradictory arguments.412 Some studies argue that Internet use threatens family relationships because online time displaces time with family and online
relationships weaken strong ties such as family relationship.5,8,9 Others contend that Internet use is
not harmful for family relationships. Online time
does not displace time with family and time spent
in family communication.6,11,12 Rather, it may improve family relationships, serving as another modality of interaction among family members.4,10
This study aims to clarify the inconsistencies
found in previous work. From these studies, we
clarify both the difference between family time and
family communication and different effects by specific Internet use in developing research questions.
First, family communication is one aspect of, not
identical to, family time. While family time includes
both active time and passive time, including time
doing nothing with family, family communication

Department of Radio-Television-Film, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas.

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CHILDRENS INTERNET USE IN FAMILY CONTEXT

consists of active family time in which family members voluntarily engage each other. Thus, the current study examines the influences of Internet use
on family time and family communication separately. Second, while most previous studies do not
disaggregate the type of Internet use in examining
its influences, the current study assumes that the influence of the Internet on family relationships depends specifically on what children do online.
How does parental mediation influence childrens
Internet use?
Although research on parental mediation of childrens media use has yielded mixed results, many
studies suggest that parental mediation has the potential to be beneficial to young viewers. For instance, parental regulation of viewing time reduces
the consumption of media.13,14 While co-viewing increases the amount of time children spend viewing
television,13 it facilitates childrens understanding
and learning from educational programs.15 Parents
active mediation through talking about media messages reduces undesirable effects of media content,
such as the formation of gender stereotypes16 and
attitudes toward alcohol use.17
However, the research on parental mediation almost exclusively focuses on television viewing. Little is known about the effects of parental mediation
of computer and Internet use, while a small number
of studies mention how often or whether parents regulate, supervise, or control their childrens computer
and Internet use.1,18,19 The effects of parental mediation may differ by medium, as seen in Rideout et al.s
findings.1 They found that family rules restricting
television viewing made a statistically significant difference in childrens exposure to television, but family rules for computer use did not have a significant
relationship to the amount of time using a computer.
In addition, while Rideout et al. found no relationship between family rules and time using a computer, other mediation techniques such as using the
Internet together and recommending Web sites may
influence childrens Internet use. Thus, the current
study examines how parental mediation is related to
childrens online activities, with consideration of the
different outcomes that could occur by the type of
parental mediation techniques.

elementary school in an urban area in Korea. An inclass survey was conducted using six classes, two
classes from each grade. Before conducting the survey, teachers were asked to review the questionnaire in order to confirm the children could understand the wording of the questions. Survey
responses included 68 fourth graders, 81 fifth
graders, and 72 sixth graders; one person did not
indicate his or her grade level. Among the 222 participants (46.4% girls and 53.6% boys), 215 (96.8%)
had a computer at home, and 206 (92.8%) had a computer with an Internet connection at home.
Questionnaire and measurement scales
Internet use. Respondents were asked to report
the number of minutes they spent using the Internet yesterday. Then, they were asked to report how
frequently they use the Internet for specific online
activities, including games, music, entertainment information, caf/community, chatting/messaging,
e-mail, homework, and educational information
(1  never; 4  often).
Family relationships. Participants were asked to
report how much they agree that the amount of time
family members spend together has been reduced
because of Internet use. They also rated their agreement with the statement that the amount of time
spent communicating with family members has
been reduced because of Internet use (1  never
agree; 4  strongly agree).
Parental mediation of Internet use. Parental mediation of Internet use includes time limits, Web site
restriction, Web site recommendation, and co-using.
Time limits were measured by asking how often their
father or mother limits the amount of time they use
the Internet. Web site restriction was measured by
asking how often their father or mother restricts
Web sites they can use. Web site recommendation was
measured by asking how often their father or
mother recommends good Web sites for them. Cousing was measured by asking how often their father or mother participates in online activities with
them while they are online (1  never; 4  often).

RESULTS
METHODS
Participants and procedure
Participants consisted of 222 fourth-, fifth-, and
sixth-grade children (ages 10 to 12) enrolled in an

Childrens online activities

The average time per day children spent online
was 84.9 minutes (SD  80.6). Boys spent more time
online than girls (boys: M  95.1, SD  82.2; girls:
M  74.5, SD  77.6), but the difference was not sta-

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LEE AND CHAE

tistically significant. The most frequent online activities were games and homework. Gender differences were found in the choice of online activities. Boys were more likely than girls to play
online games (boys: M  3.48, SD  0.79; girls:
M  2.72, SD  0.74; t[201]  6.45; p  0.01). Girls
were more likely than boys to be involved in an
online caf/community (girls: M  3.03, SD 
0.95; boys: M  2.47, SD  1.11; t[197]  3.78;
p  0.01) and to use e-mail (girls: M  3.08, SD 
0.91; boys: M  2.13, SD  1.01; t[197]  6.91;
p  0.01).
A principal components factor analysis (with
varimax rotation) identified three factors (Table 1).
Online activities including caf/community, email, chatting, and music were loaded on the first
factor, called Communication (M  2.5, SD 
0.73,   0.64). Unexpectedly, music was loaded
into the communication factor, perhaps because
one of places where children download and listen
to music is on the caf/community Web site. Internet use for homework and educational information was related to the second factor, called Education (M  2.7, SD  0.78,   0.63). Games and
entertainment information were loaded on the
third factor, called Entertainment (M  2.7, SD 
0.74,   0.29). However, the value of Cronbachs
 (0.29) indicates the reliability of the entertainment factor was very low, although the value was
statistically significant. Thus, instead of regarding
games and entertainment information as one factor, Internet use for games was considered one
type of online activity, and Internet use for entertainment information was dropped from the
analyses. The three factors of online activities utilized in the current study were communication,
education, and games.

TABLE 1.

Childrens Internet use and family relationships

Multiple regressions were conducted to identify
the relationships between childrens Internet use
and their perceived influence on family time and
family communication separately (Table 2). The
amount of time children used the Internet was positively related to perceived declines in family time.
The frequency of using online games was a more
significant factor than the total amount of time spent
online in users perceived declines in family time.
Online activities for education and communication
were not related to perceived declines in family
time. The amount of time using the Internet was not
related to a perceived decline in family communication. However, playing online games was most
significantly related to users perceived decline in
family communication. The relationship between
Internet use for communication and perceived decline in family communication was marginally significant. Educational online activities were not related to declines in family communication.
Parental mediation and online activities
Multiple regressions were performed to examine
how four types of parental mediation techniques are
related to each type of childrens Internet use, that
is, online games, educational online activities, and
online communication (Table 3). Web site recommendation and co-using were positively related to
educational online activities. That is, the more parents recommended Web sites good for their children
and the more they used the Internet together, the
more frequently the children used the Internet for
educational purposes. Co-using was also related to
Internet use for communication. The more parents
used the Internet together, the more frequently the

ROTATED FACTOR SOLUTIONS

Caf/community
E-mail
Chatting
Music
News
Educational information
Homework
Game
Entertainment information
Eigenvalue
% of Variance

FOR

ONLINE ACTIVITIES

Factor 1

Factor 2

Factor 3

0.73
0.73
0.70
0.48
0.38
0.02
0.07
0.23
0.50
2.24
24.87

0.12
0.17
0.05
0.29
0.36
0.86
0.80
0.01
0.08
1.64
18.26

0.04
0.13
0.02
0.13
0.19
0.07
0.05
0.86
0.62
1.19
13.22

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CHILDRENS INTERNET USE IN FAMILY CONTEXT

TABLE 2. STANDARDIZED REGRESSION COEFFICIENTS PREDICTING THE IMPACT OF INTERNET

USE ON REDUCTION IN FAMILY TIME AND FAMILY COMMUNICATION

Gender (boys  0, girls  1)

Grade level
Number of family members
Mothers work status
Minutes of Internet use
Internet use for communication
Internet use for education
Internet use for games
Adjusted R2
#p

Reduction in
family time

Reduction in
family communication

0.02
0.00
0.01
0.06
0.18*
0.02
0.09
0.21*
0.08**

0.02
0.16*
0.03
0.11
0.10
0.14#
0.02
0.17*
0.07**

 0.10; *p  0.05; **p  0.01.

children were involved in online communication.

However, restrictive mediation, such as time limits
and Web site restriction, was not related to any type
of childrens Internet use.

DISCUSSION
The findings have several implications. First, the
influence of the Internet on family time should be
considered separately from its influence on family
communication. Internet use may reduce total time
spent with family by displacing passive time rather
than by displacing active time such as family communication. Second, the impact of Internet use depends specifically on what children do online. Play-

ing online games decreases both total time with

family and time communicating with family members. However, for children who frequently use the
Internet for homework and searching for educational information, the Internet is not a medium that
threatens family relationships. Online communicationbased activities, such as caf/community,
chatting, and e-mail, were related to declines only
in family communication, even though it was marginally significant. That is, family communication is
displaced not by the total time spent on the Internet but by functionally equivalent online activities.
Childrens online communication may serve as another means for communication with friends rather
than with family members.3,7,20 Communication
with friends online may lead to declines in com-

TABLE 3. STANDARDIZED REGRESSION COEFFICIENTS PREDICTING THE INFLUENCE

OF PARENTAL MEDIATION OF CHILDRENS ONLINE ACTIVITIES

Gender (boys  0, girls  1)

Grade level
Number of family members
Mothers work status
Time limits
Web site restriction
Web site recommendation
Co-using
Adjusted R2
*p  0.05; **p  0.01.

Games

Education

Communication

0.40**
0.09
0.06
0.05
0.03
0.01
0.09
0.10
0.17**

0.08
0.12
0.07
0.00
0.01
0.01
0.22**
0.25**
0.13**

0.36**
0.19**
0.03
0.00
0.01
0.04
0.07
0.27**
0.17**

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LEE AND CHAE

munication with family. Third, parental mediation

of the Internet has positive outcomes when parents
are actively involved in their childrens Internet use
through processes such as recommending Web sites
and co-using. Simply prohibiting or restricting
seems ineffective for guiding childrens Internet
use.
This study has several limitations to be considered. It is difficult to generalize the findings because
data were collected from one elementary school in
one urban area. In addition, because of the nature
of cross-sectional data, the current study cannot
identify a causal relationship between parental mediation and the type of childrens Internet use. Despite these limitations, this exploratory study suggests that the impact of the Internet on family
relationships differs by the type of online activities.
In addition, parental active involvement could lead
their children to utilize the Internet in beneficial
ways.

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Address reprint requests to:

Sook-Jung Lee
Department of Radio-Television-Film
University of TexasAustin
3377 Lake Austin Blvd. # E
Austin, TX 78703
E-mail: ovo@mail.utexas.edu