Teenage Social Media Usage - A Parental Perspective: examining the impact of social media on families in Helsinki, Finland

ABSTRACT Luul Amin, Anna Wuollet “Teenage social media usage: A parental perspective” - Examining the parental perspectives of teenage social media usage in Helsinki, Finland 60 pages, 4 Attachments November 2022 Diaconia University of Applied Sciences Bachelor's Degree programme of Social Services Bachelor of Social Services This research-based thesis was aimed to explore the parental perspectives of teenage social media usage in Helsinki, Finland. This resulted from the rise of social media usage among teenagers, the potential effects, and how parents handle it. The purpose of this thesis was to gain a general understanding of how much of a role parents play in what their children have access to online, and their personal sentiments regarding that. By conducting an online survey of parents in the Helsinki metropolitan area, through social media and NGO networks like Familia ry, data was collected to show the perspective of parents. Originally planned as part of a workshop, the online survey became the central focus of the thesis, providing the bulk of the data. The survey was written by combining knowledge from academic journals regarding the topic of social media usage with information about the parental role in child development to provide a well-thought out and effective questionnaire. There were 23 respondents, limited by time and the changing environment. The material was analyzed with a descriptive data analysis method and was used to show the parental perspective of social media usage of teenagers. This limited the amount of inferences that could be made about the data, but rather displayed the variety of methods and opinions parents have regarding this topic. The main results of this research were that parents in the Helsinki metropolitan area had a variety of opinions surrounding how much their children use social media, what they use it for, and how said parents do or do not monitor their usage. Supervision to varying degrees was a common way for parents to limit or manage their teenager’s social media usage, with boundaries and restrictions also mentioned. The responses about how they personally felt about social media ranged from fear and worry to confidence in their boundary-making. The biggest difference in responses was between those who believed their year of birth and generation had impacted their views of social media, and those who believed it did not. The latter were all in the older age groups surveyed. The goal for this thesis was to be part of a larger push for research and exploration of the prevalence of social media in familial relationships and the effects of social media on the wellbeing of said families. Keywords: Social Media, Parents, Parental Guidance, Internet, Teenagers, Adolescence, Famil