The complexity of parental mediation of young children’s digital media use in a multilingual context: An investigation in Azerbaijan

Many parents have concerns about young children’s digital media use, while often perceiving potential benefits for learning. In a multilingual environment, parents’ attitudes and practices are influenced by their language ideologies as well as perceptions regarding dangers to health and wellbeing. This study, set in a post-Soviet, Global South context and shaped by globalisation and neoliberal discourses, explores how diverse influences potentially clash and ultimately combine in parents’ complex decisions regarding young children’s use of digital media. The research was conducted with five families of five-year-old children in Baku, Azerbaijan, over 15 months through family visits and a digital participatory method, Living Journals. Parents enabled young children’s access to digital media primarily to support multilingual learning, in line with aspirations for their children’s multilingual futures, while also setting constraints they deemed beneficial for their children’s overall health and wellbeing.