Digital parenting

About the working group

Digital parenting has become an essential part of raising children in today’s highly connected world. Digital media is deeply embedded in children’s daily lives, shaping how they learn, communicate, and spend their leisure time. For parents who grew up in a predominantly analog world, this presents new challenges: learning how to guide, support, and regulate children’s digital experiences in ways that promote well-being and healthy development.

The IRTIS Digital Parenting working group explores how parents and children navigate digital media within the context of family life. Our work focuses on parental mediation, digital and eHealth literacy, online risks, and communication between parents and adolescents about their online experiences. Using quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method approaches, we examine how parental knowledge, skills, emotions, and perceptions shape children’s online well-being, safety, and development, while also investigating when and why adolescents choose to share—or withhold—information about their online lives.

Research team

Published articles

2026

Lisztwan Honusová, B., Dedkova, L., & Mýlek, V. (2026). Why adolescents do not confide in their parents about online sexual solicitation: A mixed-method study. Children and Youth Services Review, 108646. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108646

2025

Tercova, N. , Muzik, M., Dedkova, L. & Smahel, D. (2025). The Reciprocal Relationship Between Parental eHealth Literacy Mediation and Adolescents’ eHealth Literacy: Three-Wave Longitudinal Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research 2025, 27, e67034. doi:10.2196/67034

2024

Knedlíková, L., Dědková, L., Kolář, S., Česká, K., Vyhnalová, M., Stroupková, L., Pejčochová, J., Pavel, T., Lacko, D., Horák, O., Ošlejšková, H., & Danhofer, P. (2024). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stress and coping in parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. PLOS ONE, 19(11), e0313426. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313426

2023

Dedkova, L., & Mýlek, V. (2023). Parental mediation of online interactions and its relation to adolescents’ contacts with new people online: The role of risk perception. Information, Communication & Society 26(16). https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2146985
Geržičáková, M., Dedkova, L., & Mýlek, V. (2023). What do parents know about children’s risky online experiences? The role of parental mediation strategies. Computers in Human Behavior, 141, 107626. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107626
Svestkova, A., Kvardova, N., & Šmahel, D. (2023). Health anxiety in adolescents: The roles of online health information seeking and parental health anxiety. Journal of Child and Family Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02689-8

2022

Gulec, H., Kvardova, N., & Smahel, D. (2022). Adolescents' disease- and fitness-related online health information seeking behaviors: The roles of perceived trust in online health information, eHealth literacy, and parental factors. Computers in Human Behavior, 134, 107318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107318
Dedkova, L., Smahel, D., & Just, M. (2022). Digital security in families: The sources of information relate to the active mediation of internet safety and parental internet skills. Behaviour & Information Technology, 41(5), 1052-1064. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2020.1851769
Gulec, H., & Smahel, D. (2022). Individual and Parental Factors of Adolescents’ mHealth App Use: Nationally Representative Cross-sectional Study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 10(12), e40340. https://doi.org/10.2196/40340

2020 a older

Dedkova, L., & Smahel, D. (2020). Online parental mediation: Associations of family members’ characteristics to individual engagement in active mediation and monitoring. Journal of Family Issues, 41(8), 1112-1136*.* https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X19888255
Smahelova, M., Juhová, D., Cermak, I., & Smahel, D. (2017). Mediation of young children’s digital technology use: The parents’ perspective. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 11(3), article 4. http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/CP2017-3-4
Ševčíková, A., Macháčková, H., Wright, M. F., Dědková, L., & Černá, A. (2015). Social support seeking in relation to parental attachment and peer relationships among victims of cyberbullying. Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools, 25, 170-182. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jgc.2015.1

For public

Published study

Why adolescents do not confide in their parents about online sexual solicitations?

In a recently published study, we looked at adolescents receiving online sexual solicitations. Despite the fact that receiving these messages often upsets them, many choose not to confide in their parents, thus losing a potential source of support. We investigated adolescents’ experiences with online sexual solicitations and the barriers that prevent them from confiding in their parents. The study was authored by Barbora Lisztwan Honusová, Lenka Dědková and Vojtěch Mýlek from IRTIS and published in Children and Youth Services Review.

Read about the results
Conference
International Children and Youth Perspectives Conference

In September 18-19, 2025, Lenka Dědková and Barbora Lisztwan Honusová presented PARKA results at the 2nd International Children and Youth Perspectives Conference, Prague, Czechia. Check out their contributions:

Parents vs. teens: Comparison of parents‘ and early adolescents‘ reports on risky online activities - SEE SLIDES

The talk we (don’t) have: Examining factors in adolescents’ disclosure of online sexual solicitations to parents - SEE POSTER
Conference
MediaPsych Conference 2025

In September 10-12, 2025, Lenka Dědková and Barbora Lisztwan Honusová presented PARKA results at the 14th Conference of the Media Psychology Division in Duisburg, Germany. Check out their contributions:

It would be awkward”: Why adolescents do not confide in their parents about online sexual solicitation - SEE POSTER

Impact of parental mediation on parental awareness of adolescents' online activities: Findings from a 3-wave RI-CLPM - SEE SLIDES