Over half the American families with teenagers surveyed use filters and otherwise restrict their kids’ Internet activities to keep them away from “potentially harmful” content, according to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project—which also says large majorities of teens and parents think the teens do things online the parents wouldn’t like, anyway.
Polling 1,100 teens 12-17 and 1,100 of their parents, Pew researchers determined 54 percent of Net-tied families use some kind of filtering or monitoring program, a rise from 41 percent in 2000, the last time Pew studied the issue.
"You set rules about television watching, cleaning up after yourselves, doing the dishes," said Pew research specialist and study author Amanda Lenhart. "Doing it for online safety is an easy next step for parents to take."
The surveyors also found the filters were used by parents who were frequent Net users themselves, while parents of older children who were less tech-savvy weren’t as likely to use the filters. But parents otherwise show more vigilance about protecting their kids online, Pew said, and there “is striking consensus” among parents and kids like that teenagers online aren’t as cautious as they should be.
The new Pew study found 81 percent of parents of teen Netizens say the kids are not careful enough when passing out their personal information online, and 79 percent of the teens surveyed agreed. 65 percent of the parents and 64 percent of the teens surveyed say the kids do things online they don’t want their parents to know, the study added.
The study also found mothers more likely to filter than fathers, while younger parents and those going online at least once a day were also more likely to use filters to keep their kids from porn and other material they consider objectionable.
Also, 62 percent of online teens’ parents said they check the sites the kids visit—even if only a third of the teens surveyed who use the Net at home think their parents are doing that, while thinking their peers are tech savvy enough to erase their cybertracks.
