ABSTRACT
This chapter examines shifts in parents’ understanding of digital media, with a particular focus on their new insights on children’s use of media that came as a result of pandemic family life. With increases in children’s use of media and the new contexts introduced by the pandemic, parents reassessed previous rules and routines, observed more of what their children were doing with digital technologies, and subsequently reevaluated their understanding of the role of screen media in children’s lives. The chapter analyses findings from Australia, China, and the United States. It identifies three main changes in parents’ understanding of their children’s media use: greater distinctions between children’s purposes for using media, increased understanding of media content, and exacerbated worries about screen media. The chapter explains these changes by applying the lens of time and temporality. It argues that it was the parents’ understanding, experiences, and imaginaries of multiple forms of time during lockdowns that shaped parental attitudes towards screen media across the three countries.
