4-in-5 parents have serious concerns about their children’s Internet usage

Four in five parents (80%) have serious concerns about the effect that internet usage will have on their children having been asked the question: ”What are your biggest fears for your children, concerning online activity?”.

However, many are still not taking simple steps to protect their children when they are online, according to new research from independent price comparison and switching service, Switcher.ie.

The findings show that 28% of parents worry their child’s internet use will impact on their mental health. Two in ten (20%) are concerned it will hinder their social skills, while 17% fear that their child’s internet footprint will have ramifications for their future career prospects.

A further 15% worry about the impact on their physical health – just one in five parents (20%) does not have any of these concerns.

MANY DON’T USE PARENTAL CONTROLS

However, despite these worries, almost three in five (59%) do not use parental controls in order to protect their children whilst online, even though free parental control software is available from most broadband providers.

Instead, parents are typically relying on other measures to protect their children online.

These include: talking to them about the dangers of the internet (44%); restricting their child’s internet usage to when they are at home with them (24%); not allowing them to access social media (23%); and reading their emails or messages with (17%) and without (13%) their knowledge.

The research, which involved 1,000 online interviews with Irish adults aged 18+years, suggests that parents could be unwittingly underestimating the risks as children are being allowed to access the internet at a very young age – with younger parents leading the way on this.

While 9% of all parents allowed their oldest child to first access the internet before they were 4 years old, this rose to 22% for parents in the 25-34 age group.

And, while the majority of parents (55%) will have allowed their child internet access by the age of 12, shockingly, 16% of 1-5 year olds are allowed internet access that is unsupervised.