As part of my role, I travel the world briefing media and international colleagues on safer internet use, news and trends. Earlier this year I visited the UK and we discussed our observations that more often than not, parents are either sharing the teaching of internet safety to the kids or moms are taking the primary role. It used to be, in the old days, that anything to do with technology was the purview of the fathers, but apparently that is changing. I often advocate that both parents have “the Talk” about internet safety with children from the very beginning of their use of the internet or technology and keep on sharing that responsibility as their children grow up and interests change. Inspired by this thought, the UK team undertook a piece of research to see if that was indeed the case.
The results are out today, and it would appear that, when one parent leads the way, it is the mothers who are more likely to take the reins in making sure that their children are properly informed about safe Internet use. The UK team have called it the ‘Birds and the Beeps’ talk, with almost one in three mothers (32%) say that they would take the lead in sitting down to talk about Internet safety with their children compared with fewer than one in four dads (23%). On the other hand, the majority of parents stated that this is a shared responsibility with both parents taking a role.
Our survey found that, on average, parents will start talking to their children about the potential risks of being online at seven years old. However, Internet safety should be an important consideration for all parents from the moment their child begins using any Internet enabled device, and when you consider my previous post regarding recent EU Kids Online research, we know that very young children are now going online. So I would recommend working hard to find age-appropriate ways to guide our children towards safe online behaviors from whatever age you think ok to put them at the keyboard or hand them your smartphone or tablet.
This particular survey underlined information we’ve seen before, that more than half of parents (53%) said that they always or frequently check their child’s online activity. However, one in ten admits that they never check what their child is up to and 15% actively encourage their children to use online devices to keep them occupied while at home without any rules for use.
Despite generally high-levels of awareness of potential threats, the poll also found that restrictions / safety settings on more than half of family devices are often minimal or not set at all. 72% of families have at least one smartphone in the home; however these devices are among the least likely to have any safety settings engaged at just 16%.
Parents ranked limits on viewable content, prevention of contact from unknown people and prevention of sharing personal information as their top three most important restrictions respectively when considering their family’s safe use of the Internet. This is great but I would encourage parents to also consider the advertising our children are getting exposed to in the free gaming apps they often enjoy. Just spending a few dollars on a paid version of a popular game may limit or block the advertising and help keep your child’s playtime free of commercialized messages.
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 4,762 British adults, of which 1,091 are parents of children aged 18 or under. Fieldwork was undertaken between 6th - 9th August. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all British adults (aged 18+).