Understanding Parental Mediation Strategies: The Role of Parents' Generational Belonging and Personal Relationship with Digital Media

Abstract

This master's thesis examines parental mediation strategies among French-speaking Belgian parents in light of their generational belonging and their personal relationship with digital media. A mixed-methods design combines an anonymous questionnaire completed by 107 parents with nine semi-structured family interviews, including interviews with parents of minor children and those whose children have reached adulthood, to capture how these practices have evolved over time.

Generational belonging proves relevant, but only when understood as a media biography rather than as chronological age. It shapes parents' own relationship with digital media — the moment of first contact, degree of familiarity, and above all the emotional disposition attached to these technologies — and thereby the repertoire of mediation they mobilise: more technical and quantified among younger parents, more relational and trust-based among older ones. It does not determine the extent of active mediation, comparable across groups, nor the nature of what is transmitted, which remains predominantly protective. These results support existing critiques of the digital natives hypothesis: growing up with digital technologies confers comfort, not media literacy. The most salient finding is thus not a generational gap but a shared one — parents accompany their children far more as protectors than as educators.