Children and adolescents in front of screens: a paradigm shift in the relationship and mediation model

This paper reviews the major theories and research that analyze the relationship between children and screens. In addition, the agents which act as mediators that help children in the interpretation of the messages are considered. As a conclusion, it is observed that the new forms of multiscreen access used by children and adolescents have developed new consumption styles and that information and communication technologies (ICT) have resulted in new styles of interpersonal and group relationships. The impact of the multiscreen society should be analyzed in light of the role played by different mediators and by educommunication.


Introduction
The study of the phenomenon of mediation in children and teenagers is relatively recent. When it comes to the mass media, the first analyzes were limited to the television screen, understood as a home totem where audiovisual consumptions took place, shared as a family. From the perspective of the history of social communication, the first publication that warns of the importance of analyzing the family context as a mediation system for television messages goes back to the late sixties: it is Television in the lives of our parents written by Young, in 1969. Later on, the first taxonomy on types of family mediation and media shows up in the early seventies (Chaffee and Mcleod, 1971). Two decades later, Huston and Wright (1989) classified four styles of mediation according to the typologies of the families and their degree of control against infantile consumption: restrictive, permissive, promoter and selective.
In Spain, one of the first authors to reflect on the coexistence of mediators before television reception was Aguaded (1999). It should also be noted, from an empirical perspective, a research published by Llopis Goig (2004) based on a survey with a representative sample of 1,787 Spanish families, carried out by the Center for Sociological Research, in which he concludes that spanish families use three mediation strategies: consumption limitation, consumption control and orientationcovision. On the other hand, Marta Lazo (2005) carries out a study in which, among other variables, it analyzes the family dialogue in the infantile television consumption and concludes that only a half of the children talk to their parents about the contents seen on the screen and, in general, all children value as positive being able to ask what they do not understand to solve doubts, contrasting their opinion to broaden the point of view on the issues that arise and having an orientation on the contents. After a few years, since digital convergence, audiovisual uses and consumption have changed. Currently, we consider a scenario of consumption and interactions with multi-screens, characterized by the cohabitation between conventional television screens and television or audiovisual content on social networks and the internet where the relationship between the content issuer and users is a bidirectional relationship.
It is no trivial fact that children and their relationships with their screens has become an object of study. The television market maintains relevant time for children's programming as evidenced by one of the latest studies presented by the French company Mediametrie who has recently presented an update of the data from Eurodata TV Worldwide (2017). This report on children's programming describes the results of television consumption for this population segment from January to June 2016 by analyzing the markets in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. The first half of the year stands out because of the growth of the audience for children's programs in some of the most powerful general channels in terms of market share. Significantly, the report showed an audience increase of 24% in the first half of 2016 for Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, and for France 5, 30% growth.
As a general conclusion in the report, it can be stated that children's television programming is enjoying good health. Starting in 2016, children's channels for in Germany recorded half of all television consumption by children, at 50.5%. In Spain it was recorded at 44.3% with Clan TV, the children's public television channel, as the leader among the target audience from ages 4 to 12. The smallest market share for specialized children's channels was recorded in France, but still represents onethird of that market.
Nor should we ignore the relationship of young people with the so-called, new screens. Different studies (Future Source Consulting, 2009;Nielsen, 2011) demonstrated some years ago that the trend of the user is to use a device while watching TV or while consuming other audiovisual content. This trend explains the interest in audiovisual producers' adaptation to multiple formats and media in the production of content, thereby capturing the attention of their audiences as well as retaining and building loyal users through different terminals that they access while viewing television and other audiovisual content. As such, the broad spectrum of mobile applications and internet access become a natural extension of television programming.
A clear example of this trend is found in the latest edition of the Mobile World Congress (2016) in which César Alierta stressed the importance of the digital economy of the future, and said that 65% of children who begin primary education today will have a job that does not yet exist, and is a reason why a change in the educational model is important in order to increase the employment possibilities of new professionals. In the same edition, the corporation Telefonica presented its own model of social TV designed and directed at participatory and hypersegmented audiences (Fundación Telefónica, 2015).
Viewing television while sharing with other screens is not new. In July 2015, Audiovisual Panorama magazine echoed a study from Miner & Co. Studio which revealed that 57% of children admitted to preferring videos on portable devices such as smartphones and tablets rather than on traditional television screens. As Medina and Portilla (2016) maintain, the Internet reaches increased audiences at low cost through simultaneous broadcast and redistribution through different devices such as mobile phones, portable media players, tablets and other devices.
We are, therefore, into a new form of audiovisual consumption and a new type of audience which Deltell (2013), following Manuel Castells, refers to as the 'creative audience'. It is a pattern of consumption unhindered by time constraints and the means used to access content is shared by the audience of a particular message. It is no longer a massive public that accesses messages issued by any means of communication. As Marta-Lazo (2015: 20) points out, the mass in conventional media society is heterogeneous, dispersed, anonymous, ephemeral, inconsistent, and lacks social organization. Thus, the mass audience as Nightingale (1999: 33-34), McQuail (1985 and others conceived it has been overcome. As Quintana (1996) maintains, the arrival of the 20th century embodies a new concept of audience conceived as a market in a so-called, 'society of information' and a result of the universalization of audiences, an increase of supply and consumption, homogenization of content, technological development and deregulation. And all this continues as even more possibilities to interact with the system are developed for the individual receiver through new technologies (Quintana, 1996: 22-26).
Today's information society combined with communication draws a scenario of consumption and multiscreen interactions. Different studies (Future Source Consulting, 2009;Nielsen, 2011) demonstrate a trend of the user to use a device while watching television. As such, the audience is presently defined as the set of people who interact in a communicative process which transcends the moment of consumption and media interaction and gives new meaning to the message.
The results of this paper are focused on children, since this audience segment and their relationship with screens have been the focus of research on the media and its social impact. This relationship includes, particularly, the identification of the elements and mediation factors that make reference to the role played by media, ICT, as well as to the micro-and macro-systemic relationships in their usual environments that influence children's consumption of audiovisual content. Methodologically, the revision of the main currents with input from scientific literature has allowed us to decipher and identify their roles in the communication process derived from the compound noun, "children's screens".

Children and screens: studies on media reception and influence in the light of recent scientific literature
The subject of television's influence on children, in particular, and the multi-screen scenario in general, have been of enormous significance in the social debate with perspectives coming from various sociological studies. Wimmer and Dominick (1996)  • Directions of use and gratification, with some studies conducted with children and adolescents, related to different patterns of consumption and consequent satisfaction: Notable are the works of Schramm, Lyle and Parker (1961); Greenberg and Dominick, (1969).
The influence of the media in audience perceptions of social reality, for example, how children perceive different professions (Siegel, (1958);) DeFleur and DeFleur, 1967).
• Studies related to advertising as an instrument of child socialization. For the effects originating from viewing ads and the analysis of its contents (Winick, Williamson and Chuzmir (1973) as well as those arising from Social Learning Theory and reports related to the desire of consumption of the products advertised among children and youth, see Atkin and Block (1973); Meringoff andLesser (1980) andBryant (1985). Similarly, others excel within the Theory of Cognitive Development framework when considering age as the main variable in the understanding of advertising messages; see Ward, Reale and Levinson (1972) as well as Ward, Levinson and Wackman (1972).
From the field of Evolutionary Psychology, Espinosa and Ochaita (2002) stand out, and several others for their numerous works related to how the media influence different areas of child development and adolescence: Berry and Asamen (1993); Van Evra (1990); Huston and Wright (1998) specify some research that analyzes the influence of television on intellectual development, language development, game development, social behavior, gender stereotypes and consumption habits, among others (Alvarez, Huston, Wright and Kerman (1988); Doubleday and Droege (1993); Huston and Wright, 1998;Murria (1993); Van Evra (1990).
From the field of the Information Science, Garcia Matilla (1993: 74-76) picks up from where other Spanish authors had contributed, but from different approaches to the pedagogy of the image. As such, there are echoes of contributions from the field of iconic and audiovisual analysis and semiotics from authors such as Villafañe, Santos Zunzunegui, Lorenzo Vilches and Jorge Urrutia, while others are more specific, such as Serra Estruch, Busquets, Costa, Talens, Marcé and Puig, Toran and Moragas. Also, from the perspective of the socio-ideological character, Román Gubern and Younis are cited. Not to be missed is Garcia Matilla whose contributions are based on Communication Theory, as well as Manuel Martín Serrano and Felicisimo Valbuena. From Theory and Technique of Audiovisual Information, we have the papers from Mariano Cebrián, Victoriano Fernández Asís and the research of Manuel Alonso Erausquin and Eduardo Garcia Matilla. Finally, from Knowledge Theory, we refer to the works of Margarita Schmidt, Vazquez Freire and those from Aparici, and Garcia Matilla and Valdivia.
• In the Science of Education area: From this field we can cite contributions from Garcia Matilla (1993), who has contributed to the pedagogy of the image from a technology-oriented perspective (such as Mallas Casas) and from the relationship of evolutionary psychology and television (as does E. Tora). From the Educational Technology line of argument, there are different perspectives from Rodriguez Diéguez, Fernandez Huerta, Gomez Herrera, Villar Angulo, San Martín and Santos Guerra. Referencing authors from the Audiovisual Literacy field, we have Robert Aparici, Ferrés i Prats, Domingo Gallego and Carmen Díez Jiménez. From the perspective of teaching media, Gimeno Sacristán and Squire stand out, as well as the research from Cabero, DePablos and Lopez Arenas. Finally, the contributions of Cano and Campuzano stand out and come from the fields of Media Design and Production, and Training Analysis, respectively.
In what is referred to as the specific field called, Reception, we find studies related to content consumption and its influence on identity construction of minors (Marta- Lazo, 2008;Huertas and Franca, 2001;Pintado, 2006). In a review of the scientific literature, we have also found analyses that extend their results into the area of the media that include concrete proposals for educational performance (Aparici andGarcia Matilla, 1987, 1995;Aguaded, 1998;Grupo Spectus, 2004;Marta-Lazo, 2005).
In the European context, we see that the dimension of reception is present in different competency systematizations in media education. For example, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport in the United Kingdom (DCMS, 2001) highlight the importance of the critical audience as a key element of media literacy. Specifically, the dimension of audience and reception referred to in the macroinvestigation directed by Ferres and published in part with Piscitelli, suggests that the audience must justify their media options in order to ensure informed choices and maintain appropriate levels of critical distance (Ferres and Piscitelli, 2012: 81).

Regarding audiometry to mediation data
In Europe, television is consumed on average more than four hours per day. This average is growing both through the diversification of media sources and the evolution of viewers' profiles towards a model of an active and critical audience, particularly through social networks. Hence, there is the growing phenomenon of so-called, 'social television' (Moreno, 2016).
The data reflected by the AIMC/General Media Study (2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015) and the Report on Society and Development (SIE, 2015) point to three major trends that consolidate the digitization of Spanish society. First, the growing consumption of multi-device video accessed via mobile terminals; second, email consolidation; and finally, the interest for methods that ensure the privacy of communications.
This scenario of overexposure to screens has motivated the American Academic of Pediatrics (2016) to propose daily guidelines of no exposure for children less than two years of age, and for those older, less than two hours of mixed consumption when used as vehicles of information and social relationships. They also suggest creating screen-free zones in the home, such as the bedroom or the kitchen. However, the audiometry and even educommunication data and proposals for healthy consumption are not enough for critical reflection of the relationship between children and screens. More study is needed on how mediation plays a role in the communicative process established between the screens and the child and younger populations. In the field of Communication, the concept of mediation refers to the role played by the media, by professionals who work in them, the role that ICT performs, as well as the format and language used for communicating with the audience and their microsystems, and relationship areas within their typical environment.
With the final purpose of explaining the map of interrelationships that affect psychological development, learning and communicative processes of children, we will adapt the theory of Bronfenbrenner's (1979) Ecological Systems Model, or Systemic Model. This model maintains that the habitat, or environment in which an individual resides, is made up of a set of subsystems whose nucleus, or central axis, are the personal, psychological and biological characteristics of the child (individual mediation). Different contexts, represented by concentric circles depending on proximity or possible degree of involvement, are then added indicating how more or less distant they are to the child's development .
The closest, called 'microsystems', includes the family, school, and peer group. The furthest, or 'macrosystems', corresponds to the culture, ideas, beliefs and values that are the results of certain socialization premises -both spatial and temporal -that is, determined by place and time, during a person's life. Culture is not contained in the four types of mediation in Orozco's (1996) compendium since it is understood that it permeates through all of them. Proximate environmental factors are reflected in microsystems, while the social environment is the focus within macrosystems.

Essential aspects in the critical analysis of screen consumption: the importance and role of mediation
When describing all aspects and elements involved in the mediation of children'sscreens, it is convenient to first delve into the audience and the microsystem as conditions for mediation.

1 Individual mediation, or personal factors: the child
Personal factors in childhood are characterized by the potential and full construction of a mind in development. Almost all the behaviors and habits for life are acquired during this stage, and so are very important for consumer education. During this period of development, children also establish a foundation for their values, such as justice, honesty, respect for norms, and the desire to share. This potential corresponds to guidelines that they should assume as optimal for the responsible consumption of television. However, it will be developed to a greater or lesser extent depending on the mediation received from other children, adults, and others in their surroundings. During this period, they learn, moreover, different concepts and arguments that come from contrary positions which open up possibilities for dialogue and re-interpretation of content seen on the screen. Christakis (2015) maintains that the stimulation of the child by multimedia devices at an early age promotes the development of the mind which requires the avid entry of information that enhances interactivity. However, the child relationship with screens causes hyperstimulation that leads to surface perception and a low tolerance to frustration.
The different contexts in which they interact will help the child to qualify, share, complement and confront perceived meanings during the first contact with the medium. Subsequent readings and reinterpretations will result in the child being more critical of, and active toward, perceived messages. In addition, guidelines that children receive from adults will affect them greatly which makes them responsible and judicious consumers.

Situational mediation and nearby environmental factors: microsystems
As mentioned earlier, the living environment, also called 'microsystems', are the family, school and group of friends. Microsystems addresses the most direct and habitual mediations that have an effect at the level of consumption and comparison for the viewing habits in children and youth. The family is the first scenario where the child gathers messages provided by screen. The parents' consumption habits are a reference model for children which directly affect how they use the media. The television and audiovisual consumption while alone or with others is another determining factor. The parents' and children's commentaries of television content they watch together help them understand and keep a distance from the televised messages. However, viewing in solitude may involve a lack of questioning of the message emitted. As such, consumption has to be balanced, and not be given more importance than it actually has. For example, using the television as a reward or punishment will imply excessive value. It would therefore be more convenient to place greater value other practices, such as reading and play, to provide them with a greater degree of interest.
The school is another ideal place to learn about the audiovisual and multimedia literacy parameters, such as the various techniques, systems and codes used for the production of messages and to critically interpret the meanings. By acquiring "communicative competence," the school becomes more active and involved, but this is not enough. We must pursue the methods required to make it become the actual creator of messages. To do this, the child has to be the protagonist in his learning process, and the teacher as the guide who offers tools for creativity and the development of their students' expressive possibilities following a meaningful and constructivist approach.
Because school and play is a part of social learning, it should not be forgotten that it is precisely in the second environment where we find the scenario for reproducing certain aspects of audiovisual fiction. Play as a relationship among equals is the preferred context seen on the screen. Series that children habitually follow serve to recreate scenes and events in their own play and they imitate the characters with whom they identify. Furthermore, the games they play are a frequent source of many of their conversations. For this reason, they tend to follow the same programs in their group, avoid falling into silence and feeling isolated from the others, and thus, take part in these activities.

Macrosystems: the great social sphere
In Bronfenbrenner's (1979) systemic model, the last circle is macrosystems, where culture, ideas, values, beliefs and patterns of educating children within the broader social context are represented. According to Postman (1991: 13), the media available in every culture constitute a dominant influence in the formation of the intellectual and social concerns within a culture. This prestigious educator argues that, in the current era, television is predominant in the formation of culture and, by extension, society.
Postman maintains that television is the command center of the new epistemology, and where anything of educational and social interest passes through; television -as well as other screens -is the stage for the model of how to organize consumption, coexistence and social relations. In this regard, we ask ourselves questions within the eternal debate as to whether television is a representation of what happens in society, or if the society acts as a reflection of the content offered by television. For example, we question the issue of violence and young people, and ask, 'It is television that incites them to adopt aggressive behavior, or is it the means for transmitting examples of youth misbehavior?
The answer offered by Urra, Clemente and Vidal (2000:73) confirms this perspective: television is violent and promotes a series of individualistic and hedonistic values. Through television and other screens, children, like adults, are being socialized in values in which violence is a means to achieve desired ends. For this reason, whether violence appears or not on television is not as important as the fact that our society's values, as reflected in the mass media, are not appropriate for children. The current crisis of values would try to claim to recover those values that are positive and promote them through television, as it is one of the media most prevalent in today's culture and easily accessed by traditional equipment at home and through other screens, such as mobile devices or the computer.

The television in the field of exosystems: technological mediation
Exosystems are reference contexts in which the child is not present but still affect their living environment. In addition to the work of parents, doctors and other support networks that the family relies on, the media is also included. Exosystems being the subject that concerns us, we will focus on television and other devices that disseminate images through screens.
If we use a realistic evaluation, we can consider that television and other audiovisual devices, for better or worse, have acquired a leading role among children and young people as a socializing agent. For this reason, it is necessary to learn to live with this medium and make responsible use of the content provided to us, which can be categorized under the dichotomy of telephilia and telephobia.
The key to responsible consumption focuses on two dimensions: quantity and quality of what is seen. Just as an excessive intake of any food can be harmful, so can spending excessive time in front of the screen do the same. The negative effects are not just limited to physiological problems (vision problems, postural disorders, obesity, etc.), but also psychological problems (over-saturation of images, changes in behavior, misjudgment, etc.).
In healthy consumption parameters, pre-programmed times and time limits for what one is going to do helps avoid falling into excess. Likewise, selecting "quality" content fosters learning from all perspectives: knowledge, behaviors and attitudes, for example, as a way of accessing information about distant places, acquiring procedures so as to learn how to operate and engage in certain situations, and being aware of important values.

Technological framework as mediation background.
The application of ICT to the field of communications and social relations has transformed the media and personal relationship ecosystem. It has changed not only the communications paradigm, but also relationship models between individuals, especially between children and adolescents, and so much so, that researchers like Gabelas Barroso, Marta- Lazo y Aranda (2012) now refer to them as RICT (Relationship, Information and Communication Technologies).
The model change has not been free of controversy because the new and the unknown provoke both fascinating and rejection at the same time. How many times have we read the frequent media headlines that acts of violence, lack of communication in families, and abandonment of reading are a result of the misuse of new mobile devices? (Garcia Galéra, 2000 ). Before, the fault of almost all ills was television, then it was the computer, and now, it is from all screens on those other devices.
The new technological scenario of multi-screen media offers a showcase full of uses and gratifications, promises and rewards. The fascination of technology clouds the user's vision and gives a particular myopic vision towards the responsibility of education and media consumption. Who has not experienced this attraction to the new smartphone, tablet, or mobile device? The industry's narrow interests, the short-lived pleasure of immediate gratification, the firm but specious conviction that what's new is good, and the confusion between being and being seen are just some of the illusions of this new techno-utopia.
However, technology is neither cause, nor consequence, nor in-between; it is a cultural artifact in an environment that is part of a continuous cycle that produces and is produced by culture (Marta- Lazo and Gabelles, 2016). As McQuail (1985) points out, social context leads to new ideas involving new technologies, which, in turn, are applied and added to previous ones. These practices lead to new uses that are adopted and adapted by different institutions (economic, political, social, and educational) that produce new meanings and new cultural changes in new contexts, and thus, the cycle begins anew. McQuail's approach is not new: McLuhan maintained the same when he stressed that the media are extensions of our senses. Not only that, but McLuhan also argued that the individual's media experience is summative, one which depends on the knowledge that we have of them and of all the people involved before. The same happened with photography when compared to painting, to cinema with respect to photography, and television when compared to what has made the internet and mobile phones possible.
The functions of the fixed phone, such as making and receiving calls, were not eliminated with the development of mobile phones. Other functions were found and applied, and it rapidly became a versatile and almost indispensable device whose implementation surprised all, including the companies that marketed it. These devices have now modified our habits, routines and retinas, the ways we learn, think, feel, and live together. We no longer read in the same way or even write as before.
Humanizing technology is necessary. The multiscreen environment weaves a thick and strong social network. Until now, moments that shaped and gave meaning to relationships have mutated into scenarios mediated by technology, has changed the center of the interaction, multiplied the directions and generated a continuous here-and-now. Sociologists speak of a social field cultivated for information transfer, conducive for specific uses, and consumption of the internet in favor of the user's compulsive projections of themselves and their identification in a more intense way that produces a story or vision. Interactivity, simulation, immersion, hyperlinks, multimedia are all qualities of a network that provide attractive benefits. But, an ethic for this new coexistence is still to be written. Ethics and digital diet are the indicators that should provide orientation this culture.

Towards good practices in the use of screens
It is evident that we need other subprojects which clearly differentiate the use and abuses that lead to a possible addiction of minors to both old and new screens. Neither the content of the programs nor the proper use of children's media diet should be left in the hands of broadcasters. Parents and educators cannot always install filters on each and every mobile device that removes inappropriate content for minors because the internet and mobile devices have become sources of content that is very difficult to control (Ortiz Sobrino, Fuente Cobo and Martinez Otero, 2015). It is preferable and necessary to educate children to make good use of the television and mobile devices and to demand that the content and quality is suitable for children.
As stated by Ortiz Sobrino and Marta- Lazo (2016: 280), "mediations of a technological nature, coming from the television medium itself, as well as mediations of an individual and institutional type arising from the training received by the child himself, from those that are fed back for future consumption, suppose the way of acquiring new digital skills to become an analytical, reflective and proactive audience before the screen".
As such, some lines of action are proposed that can inspire a manual of good practices for healthy consumption of audiovisual content: -Demand a strong commitment for educational programming for children and adolescents from institutions and the media. -Establish clear differences between use and abuse, and consider possible actions, interventions and mediations for the different interactions between children and screens. -Propose an educational intervention and social-health communication policy based on the health promotion parameters proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO). -Do not participate in fear and alarm generated by news reporting the use of, and relationship between, technology and communication. -Specify a pedagogical and communicative model to deal with the social context of these cultural practices.

Conclusions
The impact of the examination of ICT makes clear what has brought about the new system of multi-screen consumption, and what the consequences have been that affect different aspects of personal relationships among children. ICT has provided a new model of content access and a consolidation of the consumption of images for children and adolescents. Children's programming is still very much in demand despite existing shortages in the generalist networks, but new programs in thematic channels and other platforms enable new access modes. Television has undergone a transformation from occupying the nerve center of the home to diversifying into new and moremobile media in ways that consumption has become more divided among users and with new methods of access and download. RTIC (Relationship Technologies, Information and Communication) allows increasingly more interaction possibilities between users, and so it is necessary not only to educate children how to interpret messages, but also to learn to create them with an ethical and responsible approach.
Any proposal for analysis of the impact on child consumption in a multiscreen society that is favored by conventional television and the new digital devices is required to be addressed through the study and the perspective of mediation. In the field of Communication, the concept of mediation refers to the role played by the media, by professionals who work in them, to the role that ICT plays, as well as the formats and language used for communicating to the audience, their microsystems and relationship areas within their typical environment.
Considering the importance of the family as a mediation context, it would be possible to recover previous research that raised the modalities of parental control. Thus, from the perspective of the history of social communication, could be carried out a comparative analysis of mediations when there are only one screen homeaccording on the first investigations-against the control mechanisms that exist from parents in this moment, where consumption is much more individual because of the possibility of access to new screens and where social networks are increasingly playing a leading role among children and teeenagers.
The quantity and the quality of the interactions between children and the content they access across the screen are the parameters that make digital humanism the new method of learning. It is through this perspective that the essential characteristic educommunication claims. Environments have changed, society is becoming more technological, and when facing the flow of information, it is necessary to take into consideration what the social values are that convert the audiovisual universe in a model of digital humanism.
As proposed for discussion, the school curriculum should find ways to incorporate the proposed learning methods which include interactions with the new screens of the digital society in ways seen in the scientific literature originating from university research. By doing so, it will definitively end the separation between education and the media.