Parental monitoring and children's internet use: The role of information, control, and cues

This paper explores the role of parental information and control on children's internet use in Chile. We designed and implemented a randomized experiment whereby 7700 parents were sent weekly SMSs messages that (i) provided specific information about their children's internet use, and/or (ii) offered assistance with the installation of parental control software. We find that providing parents with specific information changes parenting behavior and reduces children's internet use by 6-10%. Evidence from heterogeneity analysis and machine learning algorithms suggest that this information substitutes for the presence of parents at home and complements parents' capacity to be involved in their children's lives. We do not find significant impacts from helping parents directly control their children's internet access with parental control software. In addition, we find that the strength of the cue associated with receiving a message has a significant impact on internet use. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.