Cultures of Digital Parenting: How Migrant Parents Navigate Family Life in the Digital Age

Parents from migrant backgrounds are often exposed to different sets of parenting cultures and norms. This paper explores how migrant parents from People’s Republic of China living in Melbourne, Australia, navigate family life in face of changing ‘digital parenting cultures’ during migration and settlement. In this paper, digital parenting is defined as both parenting practices facilitated by the use of digital technologies and parental mediation of how children use digital devices. Drawing on 20 interviews with Chinese-Australian parents, the paper focuses on three dimensions of their everyday experiences of digital parenting cultures. First, these cultures are constituted by the transnational flows of digital products and content for Chinese migrant children. Chinese parents commonly tap into the digital resources accessible in China to support their parenting practices in Australia, including for example, educational technology apps and online entertainment content. Second, changes in geographical locations prompt the Chinese parents to rethink their old approaches to raising children in the digital age. They reflect on their potentially different lived experiences and attitudes towards children’s use of digital devices if they had migrated. Third, the Chinese parents need to cope with digital parenting cultures of the other family members, including mostly grandparents who live with them in Australia. As a common family practice in China, grandparenting is often associated with differentiated understandings and literacies of managing children’s digital media use at home. This can be a source of domestic conflict and friction. The paper argues that how migrant parents understand and respond to these diverse cultures of digital parenting is contingent on their own experiences and knowledge of digital technologies and their educational backgrounds. The paper notes at the end how a focus on ‘digital parenting cultures’ allows for a more culturally sensitive and nuanced approach towards understanding contemporary parenting in the digital age.