PARENTAL MONITORING OF CHILDREN’S SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITIES IN BRGY.

SAN

EDUARDO ORAS, EASTERN SAMAR

A THESIS PROPOSAL

SUBMITTED TO

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCEINCES

COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT

EASTERN SAMAR STATE UNIVERSTY

ORAS,

EASTERN SAMAR

PHILIPPINES

LIEZEL BEA MAE C. BALASE

GLYDEL E. VIDAL

2021
 INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY:

The critical issue of children educationally benefitting from social media appears to

involve the extent and nature of parental involvement, especially parental commentary and

mediation of programming content. Several studies have provided strong evidence that

parental involvement is the determining factor in monitoring a child’s behavior in social

media. While the evidence indicates that parents can help their children to learn from social

media, very little is known regarding how often and in what ways parents do attempt to

observe and make sure that their children use of social media is educational.

Social media and parental involvement is a particular critical issue for most contemporary

families. Social media and other educational sites has become a primary educational

resource for most children and students. For society which relies upon an educated and

informed public, it is becoming increasingly imperative that children and families utilizes

social media as an education resource, therefore it is imperative that parents shoukd monitor

children’s behavior in social media sites since nowadays they are becoming more involved

with it.

This study was designed and conducted to provide information on a variety of

potentially important questions regarding parent involvement and children’s use and

behavior in social media. It is hoped that the current study will provide descriptive

information about families and children and how they monitor their child or children in using

social media for educational and meaningful purposes.

Children often learn and miss learn from different social media platforms. That is why

parents should monitor their children behavior when they are using social media but not to

the extent that they are degrading freedom of their children from doing so. Family

discussions is one of the most effective method in monitoring your child. The major problem

remains that most parents are unaware and disbelieving on some of the dangers of social

media on their children especially in their behavior. Once they became aware, their concerns
will seek out and try ways to change or modify their children’s usage of social media for a

healthy, understanding and supportive family environment.

Statement of the problem:

In the Philippines, parents are still the primary censors and administrators of their

children's internet use. Parents are the most frequently acknowledged source of advice and

have the greatest influence on children’s awareness of proper and incorrect digital activity,

as discussed previously in the research. Parents are also in charge of keeping their children

safe online and offline, and they have a variety of tools at their disposal to do so.

There are a range of ways to engage children in discussions about online safety.

Parents can talk to their children about safe and risky online practices and about appropriate

and inappropriate behavior. Parents can also answer questions that children have and give

advice in response to questions. They can also take concrete steps to monitor or check up

on their children’s online activities, including the relatively low-tech techniques of checking

which websites they had visited, viewing their social media profiles, or friending them on a

social network. This monitoring might also include use of parental controls on the computer

or cell phone that their children uses.

In this study, we will try to find if parents are more likely to talk with their children

about safety use of social media, and are somewhat less likely to take a more hands-on

approach to restrict or monitor their children.

Significance of the study:

The study is important to know how parents should monitor their children's use of

social media activities to ensure that they are using it in a safe way and also to guide them

on what are the social media activities that are appropriate to their age.

This research will benefit the following:

Students

This research will mainly benefit the students as they are one of those who use social

media a lot. The research will provide information for the students on how they will use social

media in a more meaningful way.

Parents

This study will help parents in facilitating their children and guiding them towards

proper use of social media. This will also enable them to know how to maintain good

relationship with their children.

Curriculum Designers

The information provided by this research will also be helpful to the future studies that will be

made related to the use of social media and how it affects one’s behavior.

Definition of terms:

The key terms often mentioned in this study are defined below:

Parents - the subject of the research.

Social Media – Social media is a collective term for websites and applications that focus on

communication, community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.

Perception - it is defined as one of the subject that is looked into with the respondents which

are believed to be their views, opinions and the like.

Questionnaire - the materials to be used in gathering the necessary data to be used in the

research.

Respondents - As used in this study, it is defined as the people chosen to become the

subject in the study and this is composed of 50 parents from Brgy. San Eduardo, Oras,

Eastern Samar.

Survey - the method that will be carried out in order to obtain the needed data through the

use of the questionnaire.

Objectives of the study

1) To distinguish parent’s perspective regarding the use and function of social media.

2) To determine the perception of parents towards their children’s social media

activities.

3) To identify how parents, monitor their children’s social media activities.

Scope and limitations

This study will be conducted during the first semester of the school year 2021-2022

and focuses on how parents manage and monitor their children’s social media activities.

Fifty (50) parents from Brgy. San Eduardo Oras, Eastern Samar will be chosen to be

respondents of the study. Variables and topics not mentioned in this study is considered

beyond its scope.

 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

“These days, kids have easy access to hundreds of TV stations and millions of

Internet sites. And they can buy or download countless video games and apps. There's a lot

of media out there, and some of it might not be appropriate for your child, depending on his

or her age and maturity level.. Social media is known to have positive as well as negative

effects on people. The effects are threatening when children get impacted by them. These

days there are several parents monitoring social media usage of their kids. They keep an

eye to know whether their young one’s online interactions are healthy or not. (Fatherly,

2021)

Internet is filled with unfiltered potential for them to expose harmful interactions such

as cyber bullying, child pornography and etc. To keep an eye on them, parents should

monitor their children’s social media activities frequently.

For parents it is important for them to understand why these restrictions exist.

Parents role is to provide everything that their children needed, it maybe encouragement,

support, and access to activities that enable their children to master development tasks.

When closer monitoring and more control are needed, parents have a number of

ways to keep track of the media their kids watch, play, and use. These tools may not shield

kids from all inappropriate material, but they can help.” (1995-2021 The Nemours

Foundation).

The best way to monitor media that kids use is to experience the media yourself.

Test apps and play games before your kids use them. View and play apps and games

together with your children. And watch what they watch so you can talk about what they're
seeing on their screens. You know your kids best, so you're the best judge of what they can

handle.

Related studies

According to a recent Pew Research study, more than 60 percent of parents

monitor what websites their children are visiting and what they’re doing on social media.

Another 35 percent of parents actually have the passwords to their kids’ social media

accounts.

Fatherly (2021), mentions “Teens spend on average about eight hours per day

online. The implications of their activities for their health and well-being are significant. It’s

important to set the ground rules when you first give a smartphone to your teen including

that they will be monitored until they are old enough to understand responsibility and

accountability. You can open up more features as the child demonstrates their ability to

follow the rules, meet your expectations, and understand the consequences of unacceptable

behaviors. Be sure to have discussions about digital safety. Communicating with your teens

about social media limitations can build responsible behavior and they learn to be

accountable for their actions.”

The article also mentions that “being online is important to the growth and

development of your teen. Online activities can bring happiness; satisfaction with these

relationships. It builds social skills albeit not personal communication. The give and take of

online discussions can teach civility and prepare your teen for the grown-up world.

Meaningful relationships can be developed online that enhance belongingness. Acceptance

by others including a large number of followers, can build self-esteem. Social media

communications can help to develop cognitive skills, especially understanding, deliberative

thought processes, and critical thinking. In short, social media activities can meet self-

actualizing needs and teach your teen to care for others.”

Additionally, Fatherly explains, “excessive use of social media can have addictive

effects. The more you use it, the more you want to use it. Teens get used to chatting with

friends, exchanging text messages, and posting comments. The posting of pictures online

should be monitored to control for sexting and other explicit sexual behaviors. Words and

behaviors online that evoke harsh responses or unflattering images can damage self-

esteem.”

“The main reasons for not monitoring your teens social media activities are privacy

and trust. Kids don’t want their parents looking through personal information, texts, and

social media posts. Many kids consider their smartphones sacred property not to be viewed

by their parents. They may lose trust in their parents if social media activities are monitored

or taken away. To counteract these concerns, it’s important to explain why their behavior is

being monitored and the possible dangerous effects of relationships/communications online.

(Fatherly, 2021) “

Theoretical framework

Uses and gratifications theory is used in this study, uses and gratification is an

approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy

specific needs. Unlike many theories that view media users as passive, uses and

gratifications sees users as active agents who have control over their media consumption.

Children now a days are having fun of using social media, they make friendships,

share interests and develop relationship with families. Social media become a way of giving

pleasure and satisfaction to users, their particular needs are met through media use. By

referring the media, they gain more knowledge and exposure to the world beyond their

limited eyesight.
 CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

a. Research Design:

Given the statement of the problem in the first chapter of the research, a

descriptive/quantitative research method will be employed as the main objective of this

research is to identify how parents monitor their children's social media activities. Thus, in

this research as stated in the statement of the problem will focus more on the parent's way

of thinking on how they monitor their children.

b. Research locale:

The study will be conducted at Brgy. San Eduardo Oras, Eastern Samar considering

fact that the said Barangay is the biggest and stable internet connection enough to have

access to social media.

The chosen respondents are those parents who have been fully vaccinated to make sure

that everyone is safe and also they will be surveyed to their respective houses.
c. Respondents of the study:

The researchers will be choosing those who are fully vaccinated parents for safety

purposes and data will be gathered from 50 parents living in Barangay San Eduardo Oras,

Eastern Samar.

d. Sampling procedure:

The researchers will be choosing respondents based on the objective that the study

focuses using the judgmental or purposive sampling under non-probability method. Out of

400 parents, the researchers will only work with 50 parents from barangay San Eduardo

Oras, Samar.

e. Research Instrument:

The study will use survey questionnaires to gather data from the respondents. The

formulated questions will tackle multiple topics that will enable the researchers to answer the

questions from the study’s Statement of the Problem section.

The questions that form part of the survey questionnaire will allow the researchers to gather

the following information from the respondents:

a) How parents monitor their children's use of social media

b) Perception of parents towards their children’s social media activities.

c) Parent’s perspective regarding the use and function of social media.

f. Data gathering procedure:

The researchers will construct a questionnaire and distribute after. The researchers

conduct the research in Brgy. San Eduardo Oras, Eastern Samar. The researchers will

explain to the respondents the important of their response is, and clarifies some terms for

them to answer it with full knowledge of their responsibility as subject to the study.

g. Data interpretation:

After the respondents answered the questionnaire, the questionnaires will be

collected and tallied for data interpretation. The researches will ask a statistician to help in

determining the appropriate statistical tools to be used and in interpreting the data. Based on

the data, the researchers will come up with conclusion and recommendations for the study.

h. Data analysis:

The data collected will now undergo analysis, with such being treated using appropriate

statistical tools suggested by the Statistician. The data collected will be analyzed by using

frequency distribution and other statistical tools as the need arises.

i. Ethical consideration:
The researchers will be conducting the study with the full knowledge and consent from the

respondents and all information gathered is strictly confidential and will only be between the

respondents and researchers.

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