Accompanying Children and Adolescents in Virtual Worlds

Working with parents, teachers and psychosocial professionals in the context of supervision and coaching, one thing is particularly noticeable again and again: Many adults have no information about where their children are in digital spaces, i.e. which apps, games and websites they use. However, Prof. Haim Omer and his team at the University of Tel Aviv already proved in the 1990s that the presence of adults is one of the most important factors in protecting children from harmful behaviour. The concept of "vigilant care" that he developed for this purpose offers a frame for reflection according to which adults can assess how much presence is needed from them in their educational responsibility and in which contexts. In his book Digitale Medien und Neue Autoritat (Digital Media and New Authority), the author of this article translated the concept to accompany children and young people in virtual worlds. The results are summarised in this article.