Le smartphone des enfants placés

Information and communication technology use among children separated from one or both parents: A scoping review

“…Some research teams documented, in the same study, the perspectives of three actors: birth or foster parents, children, and professionals (Birnbaum, 2020; Macdonald et al, 2017; Potin et al, 2020; Simpson, 2020). Two studies reported on the perspective of both birth parents and children (Wolman & Pomerance, 2012; Yarosh et al, 2009).…”

“…The perceived benefits include the ability to stay connected despite physical separation or geographic distance, have more frequent contact, and maintain an emotional bond (Birnbaum, 2020;Castelain-Meunier & Libbrecht, 1997;Macdonald et al, 2017;Potin & Trellu, 2016;Quinn et al, 2015;Saini & Polak, 2018;Wolman & Pomerance, 2012). Technology can also provide psychological and emotional comfort to young people in care by allowing for immediate contact with their family, thereby making the physical separation easier to manage (Birnbaum, 2020;Macdonald, 2017;Potin et al, 2020;Quinn et al, 2015;Simpson, 2020;Wolman & Pomerance, 2012). For instance, one mother with shared custody stated:…”

“…We share custody of the two children and Google calendaring as well as FaceTime allows the girls to be able to have access to both of us and they [girls] manage it well … just enforcing that either parent can be accessible to the children whenever they need us, lessens their feelings of being isolated or being separated from the other parent. (Birnbaum, 2020, p. 7) Professionals working with children living in care also highlighted the safety aspect of ICT (Macdonald et al, 2017;Potin et al, 2020;Quinn et al, 2015;Simpson, 2020). They reported that a smartphone can facilitate the young person's adjustment to the changes experienced during foster placement (e.g., going into care, changing care homes, end of placement) and make them feel less isolated:…”

“…Concerns about young people in foster care were related to independence in the relationship as well as unregulated contact (Macdonald et al, 2017;Potin et al, 2020;Simpson, 2020).…”

“…Even though the use of technology for parent-child interaction post-separation is increasingly regulated by court decisions related to parental conflict, particularly in cases of geographic distance or relocation, the judges interviewed in Potin et al's ( 2020) study said that it is rarely regulated in cases of child placement and that when it is, the purpose is to limit or even prohibit the use of ICT for parent-child contact. The judges cited several reasons why there are so few decisions regulating ICT use in child placement cases, one of which is the belief that this responsibility essentially falls to social workers (Potin et al, 2020). Social workers complain about the lack of guidelines for advising families in managing ICT use for family-child communication.…”