The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) recently did a study that looked at the generation gap when it comes to perceptions in online safety. The bottom line, parents think they know what their kids are doing, but they don’t. kids say they feel safe, but they aren’t making the best decisions and often regretting what they put online. I pasted a few stories below that highlight the results… one interesting part (from where I am sitting) is this:
They may be “talking to the hand,” but parents are monitoring more than their kids know. Eighty four percent of parents report that they monitor their teens’ cell phones at least somewhat closely, with 71% saying they’re reviewed text messages and 79% peeking into browser history.
November 14, 2012
Generation Gap Extends to Perceptions About Teens’ Online Behavior
By Andrea Smith, Mashable
A generation gap is usually defined as the difference in values, attitude and behavior between one generation and the next. It seems every generation complains that somehow the previous one just doesn’t get their music or their politics. But rapid changes in technology may point to an even larger generation gap between today’s teens and their parents.
A survey for the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) exploring the online generation gap between parents and teens found a majority of parents (91%) say they know what their teens do online and with their cell phones. Teens, on the other hand, are much less likely to say their parents know about these activities. Three in five say their parents are very (21%) or somewhat (41%) well informed about what they do online.
Online safety appears to be one more issue where parents and teens don’t have the same point of view, something that is not necessarily new. The purpose of the study however, isn’t to point out another item parents and kids don’t see eye to eye on, but rather to get a better sense of and understand it, according to Stephen Balkam, CEO of FOSI. CONTINUE READING›
And this: Forty-six percent of parents surveyed worried their kids would provide too much personal information online, 43% worried their children would communicate with strangers online, and 42% worried about a stranger learning things about their children from publicly readable and other online posts. Only 29% of teens worried about strangers learning things about them online.
November 14, 2012
Teens and Venture Investors Demand Online Safety and Privacy
By Lora Kolodny, Wall Street Journal
A new study from the Family Online Safety Institute, a nonprofit on a mission to “make the online world safe for kids and families,” found that teens are not only more connected than ever, increasingly using mobile devices and social networks, but they understand privacy and safety issues in a way that previous generations didn’t.
In addition, FOSI and venture investors say they are focused on ensuring that entrepreneurs consider safety and privacy issues and plan for them from the start when developing a business.
The FOSI study, “The Online Generation Gap: Contrasting attitudes and behaviors of parents and teens” by Hart Research Associates, also found that teens and their parents worry about very different risks online.
The study found that 99% of Internet-using teens, ages 13 to 17, in the U.S. have computers or laptops, and 90% have a Web-connected mobile device. Their preferred modes of communication include text messaging, which 68% of teens said was the most common way they keep in touch, and Facebook, which 34% said they use primarily. CONTINUE READING›