Pola Komunikasi Orang Tua dalam Pengawasan Penggunaan Media Sosial pada Anak

Abstract

Nowadays social media has become an inseparable part of the daily lives of teenagers and children. Excessive and
unsupervised use can negatively impact a child's social, emotional, and academic development. Therefore, the role of parents
in supervising and guiding the use of social media by children is very important. The existence of this study aims to
explore the communication patterns used by parents in monitoring their children's social media use. This research uses a
qualitative approach through phenomenological methods. Collected data using an in-depth interview method of four parents
from different economic and social backgrounds, who have children aged 12 years. The results showed that there were
differences in communication methods used by parents. There are main patterns that emerge, including limiting use, controlling
by checking children's social media and a combination of both. Parents tend to control by limiting their children's access
to social media and managing screen time by providing schedules. It also revealed that open communication between parents
and children is important in monitoring social media use. Open parents create a healthy child growth environment and are
more vigilant in supervising social media use. The results of this study were obtained from in-depth interview data from four
parents with different backgrounds of views on the role of parents in managing their children's social media use. The
implications of these findings could help educators, counselors, and other parents to better understand how they can help
their children use social media in healthy and responsible ways.