In 2024, guiding children through their discovery of the digital world is a challenging task for parents and caregivers. Society places a great number of obligations on the shoulders of parents, who are typically the reference figures for children, whether on an educational, emotional, or social level. Media also provide a great variety of information with differing perspectives and advice, making it challenging to navigate and to know how to act when children engage with and evolve within the virtual world. Parents and caregivers often feel left behind by technological advances, and many lose confidence because they believe they lack the necessary skills to handle these developments, as well as the resources to acquire them.

Therefore, the Belgian Betternet platform aims to support all parents and caregivers who are concerned about ensuring that their children can make the most of the internet, thrive, explore, and discover while minimising the risks. Furthermore, Betternet seeks to raise awareness among parents who may not be asking themselves these questions to foster their critical thinking and share a positive and engaging message.

Additionally, as part of Safer Internet Day 2024, Child Focus, Média Animation, Mediawijs, and the Conseil Supérieur de l’Éducation aux Médias joined forces to launch a digital parenting podcast.

About the podcast

Under the main Safer Internet Day slogan of Together for a better internet, the four Belgian partners representing Betternet (the Belgian Safer Internet Centre) worked together to provide parents with an informative tool to guide their children’s digital practices.

While parents and caregivers often feel unprepared to deal with evolving digital trends, this situation is particularly true for parents of children with mental disabilities. Because of their vulnerability, these children are exposed to more complex challenges and, in many cases, higher risks.

The three episodes of the podcast, available on all podcast platforms, address these issues while debunking numerous misconceptions about social networks without overlooking the associated risks. Moreover, they aim to reassure, inform, and question parents so that they feel strengthened in their educational role and enriched with new skills.

Digital parenting is merely a form of parenting. It is the digital version of parenting, just as parenting requires social skills rather than technical ones. Children expect adults to show empathy, support, trust, hope, time, and actions (Marsden L, Moody L, Nguyen B, Tatam L, Welland L and Third A (2022) Reimagining online safety education through the eyes of young people: co-design workshops with young people to inform digital learning experiences. Young and Resilient Research Centre, Western Sydney University, Sydney)) – values that are not exclusively related to digital skills but that are essential in all social interactions.

New generations, who were born in a digitally connected world, no longer make a distinction between the ‘virtual’ and the ‘real’, between the digital world and the offline world. The two are blending, complementing each other, and have been an integral part of their lives since birth.

It is, therefore, interesting to see how these generations’ perceptions and needs in terms of skills for positive digital experiences are evolving. These generations express needs for effective communications, sustainable and respectful relationships, the setting up of personal boundaries, and the respect of others, as well as critical thinking and resilience.

Guiding your child is therefore essential for them to grow up well and acquire the necessary skills for their self-fulfilment, whether in the playground, on a social network, in a video game, or at school. Moreover, showing interest in their online activities, asking them questions about their digital uses, and sharing moments together – whether by playing video games or watching TikTok videos – contribute to building a trusting relationship and preventing sensitive situations online.

Each episode of the Digital parenting podcast offers an unfiltered discussion between a parent and a media education expert who attempts to answer parents’ questions about children’s digital uses and the risks they are facing (i.e. the non-consensual sharing of personal information and intimate images, cyberbullying, grooming, sextortion, and so on), as well as measures to help young people deal with these risks. The experts conclude each episode with prevention advice, ensuring that all children can thrive on social networks and become creative, critical, supportive, and independent internet users.

In summary, this new Betternet resource provides parents with a new informative resource in a flexible format that they can consume at any time of the day. Thus, they are more likely to listen to the new content provided in these episodes which will help to address all their concerns about their children’s digital lives in a reassuring and caring tone.

Find out more about Safer Internet Day in Belgium or learn about the work of the Belgian Safer Internet Centre more generally.