On Mother’s Day 2024, Techarc released a special report titled ‘Digital Moms – The Changing Frontiers of Motherhood’. The report comes out with interesting insights on the digital ecosystem in which mothers operate today viz a viz the challenges, concerns, interests and preferences.
The survey for this report was conducted across 4 metro cities among 600 working mothers, having at least their eldest child school going between grade 3-10 in school.
Digital concerns
The report reveals that the time spent on digital platforms by children is the top most worry bothering mothers.
Screen time
89% of the mothers surveyed were concerned with the screen time of their children. Mothers believed increased screen time affects their studies and has a negative impact on the mental and physical health of their children.
Privacy
Privacy of the children and the data being susceptible misuse emerged as the 2nd most concern of mothers. 81% of the mothers felt the risk of invasion of privacy of their children and data being misused was high on digital platforms.
Inappropriate content
The 3rd most concern mothers have is exposure to inappropriate content that children encounter while scanning through different content mediums and sources. 72% mothers find it challenging to keep children away from obscene content that pops up randomly while the children are using digital mediums.
Teen influencers
The unprecedent growth of social media influencers after the pandemic of 2019, has introduced children as well as adults to an array of influencers and content creators. Many of these content creators are kids or in their teens influencing the thought process of children as well. Children not only are part of strong cult these influencers / content creators enjoy but have also started to identify with them. 45% of the mothers find it as a concern where the children have started talking about becoming an influencer or a content creator. Mothers feel while its purely the choice of the children to define their passions and decide about the career path, exposure to flamboyant lifestyle of some influencers and content creators is negatively impacting the thought process of their children, who see this as an easy way of becoming overnight rich.
Deep fakes and impersonations
26% of the mothers also see deep fakes and impersonation cases being reported as a matter of concern regarding their children. Cases being reported in media like calls by scammers to parents claiming kidnapping of their children and exploiting tech to make them believe so, and issues like fake profiles, etc., of people in general does worry mothers about the digital presence of their children. Mothers are now hesitating in sharing pictures of their family, especially children on social platforms as these could be potentially used to create deep fakes and impersonating profiles.
Frauds
12% of the mothers also find increasing digital frauds as a matter of concern potentially affecting the digital interactions of their children. Frauds through gaming platforms, real money games and online money transfer through wallets and payment apps makes children vulnerable as per parents. At the same time false promises as part of organised scams for various services and products targeted at children also results in making them easy target.
Gen AI
A very small number, 4% of the respondent mothers do feel that the widespread use of Gen AI for school assignments, project works, and general studies is hampering the original and creative thinking of their children, which is a matter of concern for them. Children, especially in grade 5th and beyond are aware of such tools according to parents and prefer to use them to finish their assignments. Mothers want children should be using such powerful tools at an appropriate age and under proper guidance and supervision.
While parents, especially mothers are putting in their efforts to sensitise their children of such emerging challenges, they also feel that the entire ecosystem needs to collectively work on the awareness and education that includes schools and the digital ecosystem players. As per some parents, children to get sometimes exposed to such vulnerabilities in environments outside home that includes schools and other groupings they are part of.
Emerging challenges
The digital moms feel that while the existing challenges will continue to remain, some of them will only grow in future along with addition of new and emerging parenting challenges affecting their children. Mothers feel that Deep fakes and Gen AI will add to their future parenting worries as they get to see the rising cases along with learning how these can be negatively used to malign reputation and credibility of individuals. Among the devices, mothers are concerned about the expected popularity of VR headsets, especially after the launch of Apple Vision Pro. According to digital moms, this form factor will zone out their children who will lose attentiveness towards the environment adding to their distractions.
The positive side of digital
While the survey enumerates the challenges that digital moms are experiencing and foresee, it also recognises the positive sides of digital world perceived by them. Compared to 5 years back, mothers today find digital world much more useful and relevant for children. While they admit that covid-19 pandemic was a ‘forcible’ turning point, the digital ecosystem has been continuously evolving since then making it inclusive, relevant, and safe for children.
Trust of mothers has started pouring in the digital mediums and platforms, and the mothers increasingly rely on these to buy goods and services for their children.
61% of the mothers spent 51-85% on their children through digital mediums buying various goods and services. 19% digital savvy moms spent more than 85%.
Mothers are known to be extremely cautious about the brands they choose for their children. Some of the brands that have spent years on earning mothers trust and confidence include Pampers, Johnson & Johson, Cerelac, Boost, Horlics, Kellogs, Maggi among others. In the digital world, apart from brands, it’s the platforms or marketplaces which also need to impress moms. This becomes essential as mothers can rely on trustworthy platforms and marketplaces for genuity of products, just pricing and exceptional execution of the orders.
In the survey, moms revealed their preferred and trusted platforms for purchasing products and services for their children.
Shopping – Amazon: Amazon was unanimously adjudged as the most preferred marketplace by mothers where they do shop for their children. Mothers shop stationery, hobby items, gifts, toys, books, apparels, accessories, gadgets, and other products of interest for their children from Amazon. The reasons about their trust on Amazon include wide choice to select from, reasonable prices, genuity of products, hassle free returns/replacement and smooth delivery of products. Many times, purchasing products for children also has an emotional element so they want the promised to be fulfilled as per the expectations. The participating mothers were happy with the delivery punctuality of Amazon, which addressed their emotional attachment with the purchase. They also like the packaging which adequately ensures that the products don’t get damaged during shipping.
One more reason for mothers to prefer Amazon is that they sometimes get new ideas by scrolling through the products that are catalogued in children’s specific categories. This is very handy for them while selecting for occasions like birthday gifts for friends of their children or looking for good and safe return gifts for friends attending parties of their children.
Food – Swiggy: Mothers are increasingly relying on food aggregation apps for two purposes when it comes to buying for children. The first occasion is when they want to satiate the urge of children to try out some new varieties of cuisines like Chinese, continental, etc. They order food from food delivery apps by choosing from a reliable food joint, QSR (quick service restaurant) or a fine dine restaurant. It gets convenient for mothers to host small weekend parties for children and their friends. These platforms also make it easy to order food for children while watching their favourite sporting event.
In case of food ordering, mothers rely on Swiggy as their preferred platform. Though the choice is more or less same on other platforms as well, like Zomato, what makes Swiggy a preferred medium for mothers is the timeliness and hygienic delivery of food, which they feel Swiggy does well than the competition.
OTT / Entertainment – Disney Hotstar: Because of the Disney collaboration, mothers find Disney Hotstar content more relevant and meaningful for children to watch. They also find knowledge-based programmes and information series on this platform sourced from Discovery and National Geographic networks. This makes Disney Hotstar the preferred choice of mothers when it comes to allowing children to watch OTT and entertain themselves. At the same time, a lot of sporting events are broadcast live on this app. This also gives children a chance to follow their favourite sporting event.
While mothers do recognise that other OTT platforms also have children specific content, but the choice is limited. Mothers want kids to have a blend of entertainment with seeking information and knowledge, which is best served by Disney Hotstar as per their experience.
The changing frontiers of motherhood
Like any medium, there is a good and bad part. Digital moms while do express their concern about making digital proactively safe and secure for children where their personality doesn’t acquire any negative attribute impacting their physical, mental and emotional health, they also admit at the same time that digital is the way forward.
The positive side of the ever-evolving digital space cannot be ignored and the empowering role it can play in the overall development of children, according to the mothers. They feel it’s a new frontier for them for which their motherhood is also evolving. However, they unanimously believe that it has to be a collective ecosystem effort where we have to make children Digital ready by going beyond spreading digital literacy and awareness.
