Parenting in a digital age
arenting is never easy. But today’s parents have to grapple with technology in a way that no previous generation did.
A new study by the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) has found that most parents, 78 per cent of those surveyed, think that technology will have a generally positive effect on their children’s futures, careers and life skills. But many are still grappling with figuring out how — or if — they should limit their children’s tech use. Some parents said they worry that as their kids use more technology, they are not as physically active.
The FOSI study sketches out more details about how parents are dealing with that consumption. Although 87 per cent of parents say they have rules for their children’s technology use, the kinds of rules they set vary widely. For example, 19 per cent of parents limit their kids to five hours or less of use per week. A little more than one-third, 35 per cent, set no limits at all. Meanwhile, only 36 per cent use parental controls, with many saying they don’t see the need to because they trust their children’s judgment and other household rules to keep things in hand.
About 3 of 4 parents said they have taken away or limited access to the web as a punishment. But there was also a slight dip in the number of parents who said they feel they have a handle on what their children are up to online. And 55 per cent said that they let a child under 12 open a social-networking account — something that is allowed only for children 13 and up.
“That’s a rather challenging figure,” said FOSI executive director Stephen Balkam, whose organisation designed the Good Digital Parenting initiative to educate parents about how to deal with this brave new world. Organisations such as his, technology firms and the government must do more to educate parents about exploiting the benefits — and avoiding the dangers — of the online world, he said. “Everyone has different but overlapping responsibilities,” he said.
The challenge of educating parents is exacerbated by the fact that the technology is changing so quickly. Facebook is just shy of 11 years old. The iPhone has been around for eight years. And the iPad, which kicked off a tablet revolution, is just five years old — yet 70 per cent of households with children under 12 say their kids are using tablets.When it came to how well they modelled good technological behaviour, parents gave themselves an average grade of B — as in, there’s room for improvement.
“You could argue that this study was not just about children’s technology use, but also parents’,” Balkam said. Younger parents, as you may expect, say they feel they have a better handle on their children’s tech use than older ones. But even tech-savvy parents have their “oops” moments. One telling stat: ten per cent of parents with social media accounts said that their children have asked them to take something down from Facebook.
Balkam said that despite the pitfalls that parents may face, he is an “eternal optimist” about parents being able to handle whatever new technology throws at them.