Gen 'y' and New Media-Analyzing the Need for Parental Mediation in their Use

Gen 'Y' or Millennial, (i.e., the section of population born in the mid-1980s or in the 90s, between the age group of 12-20 years(as has been broadly accepted by social scientists), is now hooked to new media like social networking sites, new generation mobiles, blogs and all other ever-increasing IT enabled communication avenues. It has been derived from observation studies and several empirical studies that behavior, attitude and more importantly, the perception of this overtly active section of the population is being largely shaped by what they are getting from this newly found platform of communication. However, there have been scanty evidence of parental control and supervision over the use of new media by young ones. Some analysis on the parental mediation in TV viewing by the youth and children talked about practices and strategies like 'couse', 'active mediation', 'restrictive mediation', and 'supervision'. These may also be applied in the case of parental mediation in use of new media by Gen 'Y'. This paper will present an analysis of the lessons learnt and experiences gathered on the issue of parental control and supervision over the use of new media by the young. The analysis will be based on empirical studies made in Asia and Europe and will also refer to a host of literature on the subject.