Parental Mediation of Mobile and Social Media Engagement of Select Teens in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to investigate how and the extent to which parents in Lagos,
Nigeria, mediate their teens’ use of mobile and social media. There is ample evidence in
the literature of the mediation strategies used in developed countries, and our aim was to
determine whether a similar pattern finds expression in developing regions like Lagos.
We also conceptualised parental mediation as a form of regulation enabled by family
power structures where parents feel the need to protect teenagers from what is deemed
the harmful effects of mobile and social media use. Using survey and focus group
discussions, the findings showed that parents in Lagos use instructive and data-limiting
mediation techniques far more than other digital or technical mediation techniques.
Findings further showed that parent-child relationship has not been negatively affected by
parental mediation, suggestive of the fact that family orderings have not been altered.