A new survey has found that 70% of parents feel like their children are becoming “internet zombies.” There is no denying that children are using technology, and they are using it at a higher rate than parents did when they were younger. While there are benefits to technology, like education and connection, there can be some pretty big downfalls. Parents are constantly expressing how worried they are about their children spending so much time online, but there doesn’t seem to be a clear answer. Parents are under increased pressure, and this means that they may let screen time rules go out the window sometimes.According to Study Finds, a new survey is showing that the vast majority of parents feel like their children are becoming “internet zombies,” and this is worrisome. The survey was done on 2,000 US parents, and it was conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Lightspeed Sytems.
- The survey found that 64% are concerned about the amount of time their children are spending online.
- 2 in 3 believe that their child’s behavior has changed and that it was directly due to them spending so much time on the internet.
- 71% of parents trust their children when they are on the internet, and they trust them to make good decisions when it comes to how to act online.
- Despite this trust, 25% of parents said that they believe children should be teenagers before they are allowed to roam the internet alone.
- The average parent in the survey lets their child roam alone when they are 11 years old.
- Parents also believe that it is “inevitable” that their children will see something inappropriate online. This could be when they are not monitoring them, when they are at school or doing homework online.
The survey was able to highlight some of the biggest safety concerns that parents have with their children being on the internet, and the most common was:
- They are worried that they will receive messages from strangers (43%).
- They will accidentally access inappropriate content.
What's more:
- 38% of parents do random checks on their child’s search history
- 37% make their children hand over the electronics at bedtimes.
In the year 2022 it can seem hard to monitor a child’s device and internet use when so much of the world relies on it every single day.
Sources: Study Finds, OnePoll, Lightspeed Systems