Jerry A. Jacobs

Objective This research explores online advice to parents for managing children's Internet and social media use to understand what courses of action are recommended for parents. Background Parents often play a protectionist role in parenting, including trying to limit their children's Internet use to reduce harms. However, little is known about the advice parents are provided about how to make these decisions. Methods We conducted a content analysis of 73 websites offering advice to parents on guiding their children's Internet use. These websites are sponsored by professional associations as well as magazines, blogs, and others. Results Privacy, monitoring, limiting use, parent–child communication, and safety were the most common topic areas. We find that sites emphasize the risks of being online roughly twice as often as the opportunities. Only approximately two fifths of the websites addressed the permanence of online sharing or how this may impact future college admissions or employment opportunities. Conclusion Advice given to parents focuses on protecting children (privacy, safety, monitoring) much more than teaching children how to navigate social media platforms for their benefit. Implications Given the proliferation of social media and the Internet and how online behavior affects opportunities, it is increasingly important to understand what guidance parents are provided to teach children how to develop digital cultural capital in a technologically advanced world.