RETICENCE – A BARRIER FOR ACTIVE DIGITAL MEDIATION OF INTERNET-RELATED RISKS FOR ROMANIAN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
RETICENCE – A BARRIER FOR ACTIVE DIGITAL MEDIATION OF INTERNET-RELATED RISKS FOR ROMANIAN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Summary/Abstract: The actual digital technological development of society has echoes in all countries' educational systems, fostering adaptation, and the integration of the newest internet-related issues within the curriculum. Researches have proved that children and teenagers, as heavy users of the internet, are exposed to the emergent risks of the virtual world as cyberbullying, sexting or grooming, inappropriate violent and/or sexualized content, sensitive ads, and/or interaction with strangers. This universal negative reality is combated through digital mediation – all the strategies used by parents and teachers to minimize children's online risks and potentiate the internet benefits. This paper is focused on the Romanian formal and informal educational reality theorizing on the “reticence” as a characteristic of the educational actors – children, parents, and teachers – in communicating about the “sensitive” internet-related risks: children are reluctant in talking with the adults when encountering problems online; parents are uncertain about their digital competences and the mediation strategies they are using are very uneven distributed between active – restrictive and passive – neutral in approaching internet risks; teachers and entire education system are reticent to introduce such topics in formal education, the main discussions being about bullying and cyberbullying. Under these circumstances, Romanian children are more exposed to online risks, the reticence in approaching these very actual, but sensitive emergent internet-related issues being a barrier to safe and healthy internet usage for children and teenagers.

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