Helping teens navigate online racism − study shows which parenting strategy works best

• Parents can help protect their teens from online racism by using an “active guidance” approach, which involves having open conversations about internet use and helping them develop responsible social media behaviors.
• Monitoring teens’ internet use can have adverse effects, such as exacerbating anxiety symptoms and depression, whereas active guidance has been shown to be more effective in supporting mental health.
• Parents who use active guidance with their teens are more likely to see improvements in their mental health, including fewer symptoms of depression, compared to those who rely on monitoring alone.
• The study found that Black and Hispanic teens reported feeling sad or using drugs and alcohol after seeing or experiencing online racism, highlighting the need for parents to take proactive steps to support their children’s well-being online.
• Researchers recommend a multi-faceted approach to addressing online racism, including education, policy changes, and community-based initiatives that promote digital literacy, autonomy, and social-emotional learning among teens of color.

Parents struggle to help teens deal with online racism. Online racism is different from in-person racism because the people behaving that way usually hide behind fake names, making it hard to stop them. Studies found that teens of color see more untargeted racism – memes, jokes, comments – and racism targeting others online than racism targeted directly at them. But vicarious racism hurts, too.

Teens are deeply immersed in the online world, and online spaces are quickly emerging as critical places where teens socialize and learn the rules and norms of their society. A survey in 2024 found that nearly half of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 reported being online “almost constantly.” The rates were even higher among Black teens (53%) and Hispanic teens (58%).

Online spaces offer opportunities and risks. Black and Hispanic adolescents, in particular, face heightened exposure to online racial discrimination and harassment, which can seriously harm their emotional well-being.

Good parenting can help protect kids from racism’s harmful effects, but what works in person might not work online. Some parenting ideas such as talking openly about race and teaching kids to be proud of their culture seem helpful. However, teens who see or experience racism on social media are more likely to feel sad or use drugs and alcohol. This threat means parents need to understand the best ways to go beyond offline tactics to help their teens stay safe online.

We are researchers of human development and family studies. We studied Black and Hispanic teens’ experiences with online racial discrimination and found that the most common and effective strategy that parents used to help their teens was active guidance – talking about internet use – rather than monitoring their internet use. Black and Hispanic teens reported fewer symptoms of depression if their parents used this strategy more frequently.

What teens are saying

In our study, we surveyed 356 Black and Hispanic teens between the ages of 12 and 18 across the United States. We asked about their own online experiences as well as those they witnessed of people from their racial group being racially discriminated against. We also asked the teens about their mental health and the strategies parents used to interrupt or manage their internet use.

We found that parents more often employed active guidance to help their teens deal with online racial discrimination. Black and Hispanic teens reported fewer symptoms of depression if their parents used active guidance more frequently.

Parents who use this strategy navigate the appropriate use of social media together with their children. They may offer help when problems arise or initiate open conversations about internet use.

At the core of the success of active guidance might be its support of digital literacy and cultivation of responsible social media behaviors. This empowering parenting practice may also help teens develop autonomy and independence. Importantly, it might also make teens feel connected to and supported by their parents.

Another common strategy is monitoring, and it includes practices such as checking children’s browsing history, messages and social media contacts. Yet, we found that this strategy was not helpful when it came to teens’ mental health. Instead, adolescents in this study who received more parental monitoring suffered more anxiety symptoms. Even more concerning, parental monitoring appeared to exacerbate teens’ depression symptoms from online racial discrimination.

How to help teens

Our work helps inform parents, educators and others involved in teen well-being about approaches they can take to support Black and Hispanic teens in navigating social media.

Parents can start conversations with their teens about healthy internet use. Parents can encourage teens to share positive and negative online experiences without judgment and reassure them that they can come to their parents if they run into trouble.

At the same time, parents can avoid excessive monitoring, especially if their child feels their autonomy is being invaded. If you believe monitoring is necessary, explain your reasoning clearly and work with your child on establishing a monitoring plan.

Educators can offer seminars on digital literacy for parents and children, equipping families with tools to navigate online spaces more safely. Mental health professionals can consider clients’ online experiences as part of their assessments and treatments, and they can also develop family-based interventions that promote adolescent well-being while counteracting online racism. Educators and professionals could collaborate to establish school and community support groups for teens.

Policymakers can recognize the particular online risks faced by adolescents of color and work to strengthen antidiscrimination policies and enhance protections for children online.

Researchers can investigate coping strategies and resources that empower Black and Hispanic teens and their parents, and evaluate their effectiveness in supporting adolescent well-being.

Next steps

We plan to explore how social media affects Black and Hispanic teens in three main ways. First, we want to see how online discrimination actually reaches and hurts minority teenagers. We want to understand how unfair treatment online, such as targeted harassment and biased algorithms, makes existing problems worse for these young people.

Second, it would be interesting to follow students over time to see how online experiences affect their grades, mental health, well-being and friendships in the long run.

And third, we want to know what policies at the school and national level might help make online spaces a safe and productive space for youth to gather and grow. This research is important because it will help parents learn specific ways to support their teens online while also showing how discrimination on social media affects minority youth differently. The goal is to give families real tools to help their teenagers stay safe and healthy in digital spaces.

Alvin Thomas is affiliated with
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (Forum for Children’s Well-Being), Scholars' Action Network

Yeqing Li does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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