I recently took part in a survey by My Voucher Codes regarding parents feelings about the effects of technology on their children, they sent me the results and I thought I’d share them with you.
It seems parents are extremely worried about online bullying, access to adult content and sending inappropriate images. The survey revealed what causes most concern for parents when their children are online using technology such as tablets and mobile phones.
The Results
Children are now using technology such as tablets and mobile phones from a young age. As part of ongoing research into the impact of social media and technology on our lives, online voucher code website www.myvouchercodes.co.uk has spoken to parents to find out their concerns over children using technology as part of their everyday lives.
The voucher code website wanted to find out how concerned parents were about the technology in their children’s lives and determine how worried they were about parenting issues which could arise. My Voucher Codes asked: “How would you rate the following parenting issues related to technology?” Rated from Not at all Worried, to Concerned, to Extremely Worried.
· Online bullying – 58% Extremely Worried
· Accessing adult content such as porn, swearing, nudity, sex and violence – 49% Extremely Worried
· Sharing inappropriate images – 49% Extremely Worried
· Grooming – 48% Concerned
· Access to extremism – 44% Concerned
· Addiction to social media – 57% Concerned
· Effects on Education – 66% Concerned
· Privacy – 55% Concerned
· Effect on long term health – 49% Concerned
· Running up huge bills. – 65% Not at all Worried
The effect of technology and social media on education was the main concern for the majority of parents along with addiction to social media and privacy. However most parents were not worried about their children running up huge bills on their smartphones or tablets.
My Voucher Codes also asked parents what they are doing to protect their children from the above issues. Many parents would look to block access via router to stop their children accessing adult content. Parents also relied upon a certain level of trust that their children could speak to them about online bullying and grooming with parents stating that they would talk to their children about the dangers of sharing inappropriate images. But also monitoring what their children are doing online and on social media as well as who is contacting them.
You can find more information and views in the full article at Tech Lounge.
At the moment, I am most concerned with the time my children spend online. They don’t have any computers in their rooms so when they are on the internet is it always in front of us, although even then I have to keep peeking at the screen as homework will change to Minecraft! However, as they get older and join social media sites online bullying will be a huge worry for me. Protecting my children whilst also giving them independence will be tricky. I will definitely make sure I set up safety parental controls and still try to limit the amount of time they spend on there. I feel the most powerful way to keep our kids safe is to talk to them and make sure they’re aware of how to keep safe on the internet. I will keep an eye on new internet trends too as it’s easy for us already internet savvy parents to think that we know what sites our kids will use when they get independent access, but actually new sites which are preferable to younger users are popping up all the time. Never assume.
What are your biggest concerns and how do you keep your children safe online?
