Some grandparents were bothered by their limited digital capabilities or were sceptical to talk about the presence of digital technologies in today’s life. However, this does not stop them from being concerned about the grandchildren’s digital technologies behaviours when looking after them.
Our research discovers that grandparents have limited understanding of eSafety due to their limited digital capabilities. Even though grandparents were aware of the notion of eSafety (e.g., fraud, scam, bullying etc.), they still lack the confidence to guide their grandchildren.
Moreover, the findings show that grandparents tend not to talk to their grandchildren openly when they are taking on the guardian role. It seems like there is a deficiency of eSafety awareness to be developed together between grandparents and grandchildren. Even more so, there seems to be limited trust in grandchildren’s use of digital technologies when they are at the age of transitioning into dependent digital technologies users.
We would suggest that given the life experiences of grandparents, they could take the initiative of reading signs of children’s behaviours while spending time with them. Similar to any social safety concern, grandparents should be able to pick up “something is not right” confidently instead of focussing on their eCapabilities.