More than half (52 percent) of parents with teenagers 14-17 years old say they are “extremely” or “very aware” of what their kids are doing online, according to a Common Sense Media|SurveyMonkey poll of parents and teenagers. On the other hand, just 30 percent of teens say their parents are “extremely” or “very aware” of what they’re doing online.
Some key findings include:
- Parents’ top concerns regarding their kids are that they are “spending too much time on devices” (44 percent), “online predators” (31 percent), and “exposure to sexual media” (28 percent).
- Most teens (84 percent) say their parents aren’t actively tracking their activities online using some sort of monitoring device or service, and nearly as many (73 percent) say they don’t have any online accounts that they hide from their parents.
- More than three-quarters of teens use Instagram and Snapchat (77 percent each), but less than half use Facebook (49 percent) and Twitter (42 percent). Just 9 percent of teens don’t use any of the social media sites listed above.
- Less than one third (30 percent) of teens say their parents don’t follow them on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or Twitter. A large majority of those who use Facebook (79 percent) are friends with their parents on the platform. Fewer of those who use Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter follow or are friends with their parents on those platforms (46 percent, 27 percent, and 18 percent, respectively).
- On all these social media platforms, teens are most likely to follow their friends. Instagram and Twitter are popular for following celebrities, while Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are popular for following family members.
*teenagers
