<p>Mediatization presents residential child and youth care with the challenge of fostering digital participation while also protecting clients from risks. Despite high demands on pedagogical professionals, empirical insights into the status quo of media education in these settings remain scarce. This paper aimed to assess predictors for professional media education and to contrast the perspectives of professionals with those of the adolescents in their care. Across three studies, we surveyed professionals and adolescents in German residential welfare institutions. Study&#xa0;1 (<i>N</i> = 73) and Study&#xa0;3 (<i>N</i> = 206) analyzed predictors of active and restrictive mediation strategies. Study&#xa0;2 (<i>N</i> = 80) and an additional analysis in Study&#xa0;3 compared youth and professional perspectives on mediation and risk perception. We found that lower professional media literacy predicted more restrictive mediation, active mediation was strongly predicted by individual motivation and daily media pedagogical habits, and a&#xa0;more intense institutional focus on media pedagogy and higher age predicted both strategies. We found discrepancies between professional and youth perspectives on the intensity of mediation and the prevalence of digital risks. Nonetheless, we found that institutional conditions for media pedagogy were highly resource-dependent and inconsistent. We therefore sketch an outline for a&#xa0;future professionalization framework, focusing on structural enablement, pedagogical attitude, and methodological competence to provide sustainable professional development.</p>