Interview with Verena Weigand on the topic of media education in the family

Parents also use smartphones and tablets on a daily basis and thus assume an important role model function. Through their use, they have a decisive influence on the children's usage behavior and at the same time are responsible for media education. Clear rules that are agreed upon in the family help here. However, there is often a big gap between theory and aspiration and implementation in everyday life. Disputes and discussions between parents and children about the selection of offers, formats and the duration of use are usually inevitable. What practical tips and suggestions do you have for everyday media education?

As a basic rule, there must be rules in the family that everyone adheres to. For example, media-free times are helpful. This could be at mealtime, before bedtime or during homework. This should also apply to parents at mealtimes, and screens should be turned off before school. Of course, it's also very important to agree with the children on rules for the media times themselves, i.e. for use. These rules must always fit in with the family and everyday family life. In other words, it's important that they don't spend too much time on it, and preferably not every day. For elementary school children, it is recommended to create and issue a weekly quota.

As always with rules, there are also exceptions. If, for example, the weather does not play along or the child is sick in bed, then you can skip the media-free time and extend the media time a little. On another day, for example, the screen can then be left out or it is played outside.

It is also very important that parents have a role model function. That is, children are always also oriented to the behavior of parents. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to their own media use. Another important aspect is making the right choice. Although elementary school children always have their own preferences, they are still relatively open to suggestions from parents, and choosing together is of course the very best, it's also fun, and parents can still control things a bit. When choosing, you should make sure that the individual contents are not so long, so only now and then a full feature film, that relaxation moments and humor are important at that age. It is nice, of course, if you can inspire children for magazines and news that broaden their horizons.
On flimmo.de, by the way, you can filter the content by age and there are also recommendations for particularly good content. Not all content, however, must always be educational. Children also have a right to be entertained times only.

The media education in the family is for many parents already a perennial challenge, because the abundance of constantly new offers on TV, on Youtube or streaming providers for many parents is hard to keep track of. How do parents manage to stay "up to date" and where do parents get support and assistance?

Primary school children gradually want to choose for themselves what they wear or play. The influence of friends is becoming increasingly important. What is just on the break yard is of course exciting and children will always come up with content that parents do not yet know. Of course, the flimmo is the perfect place to go. The Flimmo can tell you what media trends are currently occupying children's minds and where parents need to know more about what's going on. The Flimmo keeps an eye on the topics in the schoolyard and provides information about them. It could be Squid Game, Huggy Wuggy or the Ukraine war. Whether new releases in the cinema or streaming providers, highlights in media libraries or what is currently on TV. At www.flimmo.de, parents can get comprehensive information. They will find recommendations for children's movies worth watching, for children's series and in addition assessments, if they do not know something yet.

What can parents do if they observe that their child is clearly overwhelmed with the content consumed?

Parents should first find out what was the overload for their childd? Was it a scary character? Maybe a spooky plot? Or the current news situation? And whow does this overwhelm show itself? Does the child wake up every night or draw a scene over and over? Does it ask a lot of questions? Maybe it also no longer dares to go to the basement?

This is how parents can react: It is important to go into the situation. If parents notice that children get scared during media consumption, it is best to go into the situation and not leave the child alone. Children's fears should be taken seriously and parents are also exactly the right people to comfort a child. Statements such as "That's not so bad" or "You do not understand yet", thatdoes not help children. It is better to take the fears seriously, to comfort and try to catch insecurities. Children of elementary school age can also be helped by explanations. For example, a film is made particularly scary with certain means.

Even topics such as war or scary phenomena on the Internet require explanations and classification on the part of parents. Young children can help to process impressions in the game or to draw a picture about it. Parents should then encourage this. For older children, discussions and concrete information are more important. In principle, it is always good to observe carefully how children consume media and to look not only at the content, but also at the child itself. So you get with, if something causes problems and can react accordingly.