What is Interactive Technology

Adolescents are major consumers of interactive technologies (e.g., cell phones, social media). They are motivated to use these technologies to maintain their social relationships in a convenient and private way. The private nature and ease of connectivity afforded by interactive technology has resulted in various parental concerns (e.g., victimization, content) about adolescent technology use. To mitigate these parental concerns, some parents have begun to implement parental mediation strategies. Research has primarily focused on describing the different parental mediation techniques parents implement, parent and adolescent perceptions of parental mediation, and potential barriers to the implementation of parental mediation.