Our research found that grandparents aimed to mostly follow the rules children had at home regarding technology yet found it difficult to apply those rules 100%. Grandparents performed a range of different roles. The element of being ‘one step removed’ meant that grandparents would either attempt to emulate the approach taken by their own child, or, depending on the time and space, develop different rules.
These differences were then amplified by generational differences, which often resulted in grandparents avoiding playing online with their grandchildren.
Interestingly, our findings indicated that occasionally grandparents also had specific rules when looking after their grandchildren, sometimes meaning that more screen time was allowed than when the child was with their parents, or it was allowed at different times when compared with their children’s approach. Something specific about children being at their grandparents we found was that grandparents specifically were often worried about the physical wellbeing of their grandchild while minding them and so used screentime to help occupy their grandchildren, with specific rules and restrictions depending on the grandchild.
We found it important for parents and grandparents to realise that different homes and carers bring adjustments to rules, and that agreeance on this need for adjustments was important to the confidence grandparents had in minding their grandchildren.