Right to Disconnect at Work and Children’s Digital Well-Being: An HR Perspective on Indirect Protection in the Digital Age

Abstract

The overuse of digital media by children has emerged as a serious concern in the area of public health, education, and development. Although parenting practices, media use, and educational programs have been extensively examined as antecedents of children’s digital media use, the role of parents’ work environment as a factor that shapes children’s digital environment has  been overlooked. Today’s digital workplace requires employees, especially parents, to remain connected even after the end of the workday. Being constantly connected affects family life, reduces the quality of parent-child interaction, and leads to excessive screen time at home. The theoretical framework of work-family spillover together with digital labor research and current studies on parental technoference will be used in this conceptual study to analyse how the absence of a workplace right to disconnect leads to increased digital usage by children. The research paper demonstrates that HRM policies which regulate after-work communication will create better family dynamics and result in improved digital health outcomes for children. The paper extends current discussions about work-related disconnection rights by showing how these rights affect society beyond their impact on worker health.