14 DAY TRIAL // Do your children spend much of their time surfing the web, telling you that they’re doing research for homework? Well, according to a new study, chances are that they’re hiding many of their online activities. Even worse, if you have four children, one of them has most likely experienced the effects of cyberbullying.
McAfee has released an interesting study called “The Digital Divide: How the Online Behavior of Teens is Getting Past Parents” which details the effects of technology on teens and parents. Two issues appear to stand out of the crowd: cheating and cyberbullying.
So what do parents say?
Almost half of those who have kids aged 13-15 have installed some sort of parental control application. 44% of parents know their children’s password, 27% of them have taken their devices, and 10% even use GPS technology to monitor their teens.
On the other hand, the report shows that 61% of youths are confident in their ability to hide their online activities from their parents. Furthermore, 71% of them have actually done something to cover up their virtual tracks.
Even more interesting is the fact that teens clear browsing histories, minimize browser windows when they’re exposed, hide inappropriate videos, use private browsing, and disable parental controls. However, only a small percentage of parents are aware of these activities.
As far as bullying is concerned, the numbers reveal that most of it happens on Facebook (92% have been bullied on Facebook), followed by Twitter (23.8%).
In response to these threats, 66% confronted the bully, 35% of which stood up to him/her in person. Others seem to be even more affected by cyberbullying. 15% have reported avoiding school and 4.5% even got into a physical fight with the ones who threatened them.
While 25% of teens claim to have been bullied online, only 10% of parents are aware of such incidents.