An Exploratory Study on Chinese Preteens' Internet Use and Parental Mediation during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the closure of schools around the world. When children study online, parents are concerned about the impact of increased screen time on their children's physical and mental health. This poster reports results from a qualitative study of Chinese preteens' Internet use and parental mediation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through interviews with eight parents of primary school students aged from 10 to 12, we found several problems with preteens' Internet use, posing challenges for parental mediation. Parents have adopted stricter restrictive mediation strategies to reduce the impact of Internet addiction and implemented co-use strategies to help preteens adapt to online learning.