Constructing the young child media user in Australia: a discourse analysis of Facebook comments

Children and Minecraft: A survey of children’s digital play

“…In a recent survey of Australian adults, excessive ‘screen time’ was rated as the top child health concern (Rhodes, 2015). In this context, children’s digital game play exists within a unique and polarising discourse (Mavoa et al, 2017a). On one hand, digital games are, in popular discourse, associated with violence, addiction, antisocial behaviour, passivity and poor physical health (Ferguson, 2010; Mustola et al, 2018; Shin and Huh, 2011), while on the other, they are also associated with ‘tech-savviness’ and broader digital literacy skills (Mustola et al, 2018; Narine and Grimes, 2009).…”

Opposing narratives about children’s digital media use: a critical discourse analysis of online public advice given to parents in Australia and Belgium

“…This study reported on a directed content analysis of dominant online, publicly available advice provided to parents and caregivers about children's Internet use, along with a critical discourse analysis that synthesised how the advice offered constructs the qualities for being 'a good parent' in socially significant ways. The first analytical strategy focused on the content of the narratives, demonstrating that they are likely to communicate inconsistent messages to parents, which may result in confusion about what constitutes positive, effective parenting around digital practices (Mavoa et al, 2017). The second analytical strategy deconstructed the messages, offering an account of what these narratives do, and what their constitutive effects may be (Graham, 2011).…”

“…Even though both countries share a similar digital economy and Western mind-set, different histories can be expected to result in cross-cultural variability in ideas about children’s development (Harkness et al, 2007; Livingstone and Third, 2017), yielding distinctly separate narratives. Through analysis of these discourses as sites of meaning-making (Mavoa et al, 2017) and political manoeuvring (Gee, 2011), the spectrum of ideological framings for parental mediation of children’s digital media use is acknowledged and made visible.…”

“…Alongside the academic interest in the parental mediation of children's media use and their online risks and opportunities, there is significant public interest in and commentary around the role of parents in shaping children's future digital lives (Mavoa et al, 2017). Public discourses around children's online activities and parents' roles tend to focus on two discourses: 'risk and responsibilisation' and 'benefits and opportunity' (Masceroni and Holloway, 2017).…”

“…Examples include the Australian policy recommendations on the use of filtering software, partly to protect children from undesirable content (ACMA, 2008); Australian evidence showing that Facebook comments strongly revolve around children's problematic 'screen time' (Mavoa et al, 2017); and guidelines by the Australian Department of Health and Ageing that are oriented towards harm-reduction (Mavoa, 2018). Given the increasing salience of a child's rights approach in research and commentary, however, it is expected that a techno-dystopian approach will be increasingly contrasted with an emerging digital empowerment framework which promotes screen technology use in early childhood classrooms and encourages families to use these technologies for children's educational benefit (Lonne and Gillespie, 2014;Mavoa et al, 2017). Accordingly, traces of this variety of discourses and potential changes may be increasingly apparent across the 30 months of the dataset.…”