The Facebook Family: Information and Communication Technology Redrafting the Rules of Participation in Family Life

2009

Simpson, Brian H

Editor(s): Bartolomeo Sapio, Leslie Haddon, Enid Mante-Meijer, Leopoldina Fortunati, Tomaž Turk, Eugene Loos

Conference Publication

en

Publication

European Cooperation In Science and Technology Action 298 - Participation in the Broadband Society (COST)

ABS center

une:5306

This paper is concerned with the manner in which information and communication technology is constructing new forms of regulation of family life. For example, the Facebook pages of young people have been used by parents to discover why a child has taken their life or gone missing. Spouses or parents may use mobile phone records or tracking software for online activity to check the behaviour of their partner or child. While this may simply be viewed as increased surveillance within the family, it also raises questions about how this changes the nature of participation in family life, whether as partner or parent. Information and communication technology generates public or traceable records in traditionally private realms of existence. How do family members cope without such private spaces? Are we more suspicious of each other? Or does sharing become easier? Is a good parent now to be defined as one who frequently logs into their child’s social networking pages because this will prevent harm, predict behaviour or protect their child from 'inappropriate’ interactions?

link

The Good, The Bad and The Challenging: The user and the future of information and communication technologies

9789616277174

9616277170