Tour: Matching answers to your questions

In the first two years, media do not play a major role in a child’s everyday life. In the first months, it initially orients itself in the new living environment. With each new day, the sensory organs become more mature. Babies begin to explore the world by seeing, touching, grasping, hearing and tasting. They use these skills, along with an innate preference for new things, to learn. Interaction with adults, especially parents, is especially important to them. You can tell this by the way your child tries to imitate you shortly after birth. To establish a bond with your child, you should always make eye contact with him, talk to him and touch him – without media getting in the way!

Finally a schoolchild! Starting school marks the beginning of a new and exciting phase in life for children and parents. Children in this phase are inquisitive, constantly discover something new and are very capable of learning. Social contact, whether with parents, siblings and (new) friends, is especially important to them. In the process, they develop their own skills and interests as well as an increasing sense of self-worth. As parents, you can support your child’s development during this phase with positive encouragement.When your child enters school, he or she learns new structures and at the same time encounters (unknown) challenges in many places. Conflict resolution skills and the ability to take responsibility are not yet strongly developed. The children need a lot of orientation, rules and support here. They spend a lot of time with the family, but increasingly also with friends. Very slowly, they begin to go their own way. Children at this age move a lot and like to play. At the same time, media use increases and they gain more and more experience with the Internet. By learning to read, they can use it more purposefully.

Between the ages of 11 and 13, children are in a special phase between childhood and adolescence. In this transition, they have to deal with many tasks and challenges. They place greater value on friendships, orient themselves more strongly to their peers, form more of their own interests and want to pursue them more independently. On the one hand, your child still needs you as parents for many situations and questions. On the other hand, your daughter or son wants to set themselves apart and take on more and more responsibility themselves.Children at this age are increasingly oriented toward people, trends and ideas outside the family. Media, which they use in a variety of ways and on a large scale, also serve this purpose. Smartphone and social media are gaining strongly in importance during this phase of life.

Adolescents are going through the final steps toward adulthood. They are in an important phase of self-discovery and identity formation. Adolescents spend a lot of time at school, with friends, hobbies and interests. In the process, they sometimes distance themselves strongly from their parents and make many experiences on their own. At the same time, they find support in the family. In this phase of life, most young people think about their future and must increasingly take responsibility for it themselves. Some adolescents are already at the beginning of an education and gain their first experiences in the adult world.adolescents develop a personal position on issues and in their environment, can set their own goals and resolve conflicts among themselves. Interest in social issues also grows. Young people look for their experiential spaces and role models far away from the parental home. They meet in clubs or at the bus stop, for example, to exchange ideas with their peers, to try things out, and also to set themselves apart from one another. They also use digital spaces for this purpose. After all, digital media are an essential part of young people’s everyday culture, which they always have with them in the form of their smartphones.

Media are an integral part of our everyday lives. They are a place for creativity, information, experimentation and exploration. And they take on important functions in the growing up and personality development of children and young people. Via (mobile) online media, they gain diverse access to new worlds of experience. The variety of offers and possibilities of digital and networked media is almost unmanageable. What was still topical and fascinating yesterday may already be uninteresting tomorrow. If we want to understand our children and the world they live in, it is important to engage with their media. Even when it comes to protecting them from potential dangers, it is important to be aware of the wide range of media available. This is the only way to make your children competent for a media-based, digital future.

Especially in the early years, the family has the most significant influence on children’s behaviour, knowledge and skills. How media are used in everyday family life – whether for distraction, information, learning or creativity – contributes to how children deal with them later in life. Dealing with media in the family is not always easy. Different ages, interests and habits can lead to conflicts and a lack of understanding. More information on your role in children’s media use, possible rules in everyday family life and so on can be found in the following text sections.

The Internet and mobile devices are full of content, offers and information. Many of them are entertaining, helpful and exciting. However, some sites and apps can be risky and overwhelming. Children and parents should know about it! The following texts will help you.

As a general rule, it is important not to create unnecessary fear in children, but to support the development of healthy skepticism. Most often, ignorance creates fear, which can be transmitted to children. It is important that you communicate to your child that they can turn to you if they have a problem. Point out some important things to your child before he or she uses a media device or goes online alone.