According to a new study from the UK, parents are becoming more aware of the importance of teaching kids about the internet, but they don’t want to take the time to do it themselves. The Digital Literacy Report, which was commissioned from YouGov by the digital communications agency Halpern Cowan, polled 2,050 UK adults on issues related to internet safety. The results were compelling.
Not only do parents know that improper internet use can have long lasting consequences for their kids (48% surveyed said they worried about things on the internet hurting their child’s chances of getting into college or finding a job), but an amazing 69% of parents indicated that they would like some kind of compulsory lesson on internet safety and security to become a part of the national school curriculum. Why should schools teach kids about the web? Because parents themselves don’t.
According to the survey, 44% of parents do not monitor what their children are doing on the web. When you take into account that many parents do not use the internet as frequently, or proficiently, as their children, the issue becomes even more serious. With the constant flux of the web, and the speed in which social media websites appear and disappear, many parents find it difficult to bridge the technological gap and actually talk to their kids about what to do and what not to do online.
A few weeks back, I wrote a post here at the Reputation.com Blog sharing Five Common Sense Social Networking Rules for Kids. If you’re having a problem talking to your child about the internet, I would encourage you to look back over that article and begin implementing some of those rules. For more help on protecting your child online, check out MyChild, Reputation.com’s innovative service for monitoring your child’s digital footprints.
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