A new study has found that parents may be underestimating how much time their teenagers are spending on social media. It is no secret that teenagers are spending a lot of time on social media and the internet. It has some great benefits, like learning and connection, but parents can worry about their child’s safety while they are on these platforms. They may worry about the possibility of them interacting with dangerous strangers, or the impact social media can have on their mental health. Especially when it comes to cyberbullying and body image.It may be hard, but some parents do try and limit the amount of time their child spends on social media.According to Medical Xpress, a new study is finding that parents may not have a clear picture of how much time their teen is on social media. This was shown through a study that was done by the University of Toronto, and it can be read in full here.RELATED: Signs Of Cyberbullying & How To Help Your Child Overcome ItThe survey found that parents did estimate that their children had spent more time on screens in total throughout the first year of the pandemic, they have underestimated how much of that time was spent on social media and playing multi-player video games.Jason Nagata was the lead author of the study and he stated that the pandemic saw more families all home together, but that did not translate to parents being more aware of what their teen was doing online, or how much of it they were doing. When they looked at it in regards to sex, they found that parents were more likely to underestimate the amount of time girls spent on social media when compared to boys. Jason stated that since we know that screen time has doubled for youth since the pandemic, this is a great time for more conversations.[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/arrowheadpeds/status/1471955883730952192[/EMBED_TWITTER]He stated that parents should be having a continuous conversation with their teenagers about their use of social media and how to be safe. It seems to be difficult to completely restrict the use of these apps for teenagers, so the best thing that parents can do is keep the line of communication open and make sure their teen knows that they can go to them should they ever feel like they are not safe online, and what to watch out for. Awareness is part of fixing a problem, and studies like these are going a long way to making parents aware of what is happening.Sources: Medical Xpress, Academic Pediatrics