Here's What Parents Really Think About Their Kids' Online Activity
In the 1970s heyday of fearing random kidnappings and/or budding delinquency, the TV news would end the night with: “It's 11 o’clock...do you know where your children are(Opens in a new window)?” Parents today can usually answer at any hour with a sigh: “They’re looking at a screen.” But that’s not all bad.
In the latest PCMag Tech Parenting survey, we asked parents how their children are using technology, the skills they’re developing, and the concerns they still have.
The chart above details the major digital activities we asked about. Only 3% of parents said their children don't do any of that; most kids are watching videos on YouTube and playing video games. Even one in four kids are prepping to become an influencer and creating media content.
More important perhaps are the tech skills kids are honing (beyond selfies and vlogging). Sadly, parents said 8% of kids have zero in the way of tech talents, but the rest show high numbers for learning keyboarding (the very least of what they’ll likely need for a potential future in front of a PC) and computer literacy overall.
The number for coding at 25% is also encouraging. It would be nice if we can get at least as many future programmers as we do influencers in the future.
With the good comes with the bad, the bad being the worries parents have in general about technology. Overall, concern about the effects of technology are high at 66%.
What are parents concerned about? While the majority agree tech prepares kids for the future, most also would like to manage exactly what kids see online. And a slightly smaller majority feel that’s utterly impossible.
Perhaps the most telling thing is the question we asked about the age when a child should have that most coveted of
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