Parenting for a Digital Future

In the decades it takes to bring up a child, parents face challenges that are both helped and hindered by the fact that they are living through a period of unprecedented digital innovation. In Parenting for a Digital Future, Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross draw on extensive and diverse qualitative and quantitative research with a range of parents in the UK to reveal how digital technologies characterize parenting in late modernity, as parentsdetermine how to forge new territory with little precedent or support. They chart how parents often enact authority and values through digital technologies since "screen time," games, and social media have become both ways of being together and of setting boundaries. Parenting for a Digital Future moves beyond thepanicky headlines to offer a deeply researched exploration of what it means to parent in a period of significant social and technological change.

IParenting for a Digital Future offers a compassionate deep dive into the changing and increasingly challenging role confronting adult caregivers as they negotiate their way forward with the aim of supporting children's digital futures ... Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross forensically investigate what it is to be a parent trying to do the best possible job of raising children in a digital context. They bring the book to life with descriptive anecdotes and verbatim quotes that transport the reader into the refugee bedsit and the park-adjoining mansion. This book meets and introduces parents and children as the complex people they are, with hopes, fears and ambitions complicated by social, emotional, educational and financial pressures., The authors have assembled a well-written, systematic appraisal of parental responses to the digital challenges of the present; their book is no less relevant to American audiences than it would be for those from any postindustrial society ... Parents puzzled by how to respond to the digital technological future with their children will find this book enlightening., It is education professionals who are more likely to know more than average about this topic. We would definitely like to see the book in their hands, but also in the hands of other trusted professionals parents go to for advice (paediatricians, social workers, NGO workers). It is an essential read for all advocates of child rights who want to have an impact on legislation and methodology tackling all implications of digital technology and digital realities. Bearing in mind that parents are the most impactful educators of their children, this book is a must-read for those who wish to empower the primary educators for a bright future of our children - that nearly certainly will be digital., The best book yet written on the dilemmas of parenting in the digital age, a period of constant innovation and change for adults and children alike. Based on in-depth studies of family life, and giving close attention to inequality and deprivation, this work is an indispensable source both for academics and the lay reader." -Anthony Giddens, House of Lords and King's College, Cambridge, Parenting for a Digital Future offers readers a rich and deeply nuanced picture of how children's digital technology use reflects the concerns and hopes parents have for bringing up balanced and successful children. This book is a must read for anyone who cares about children and families, including scholars, policy makers, advocates, educators and, most importantly, parents themselves." -Amy Jordan, Professor, School of Communication and Information, Rutgers University

Sonia Livingstone is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has published 20 books, including The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age.Alicia Blum-Ross is a researcher, educator, and advocate who has worked in academia, industry, and civil society to study and create opportunities for children, youth, and families to more safely connect, create, and learn online.