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More and more teenagers are hiding their online activity from their parents, according to a US survey of teen internet behaviour released.
The survey, sponsored by the online security company McAfee, found that 70% of teens had hidden their online behaviour from their parents in 2012, up from 45% of teens in 2010, when McAfee conducted the same survey.
"There's a lot more to do on the Internet today, which ultimately means there's a lot more to hide," said McAfee spokesman Robert Siciliano.
Siciliano cited the explosion of social media and the wider availability of ad-supported pornography as two factors that have led teens to hide their online habits. The increased popularity of phones with Internet capabilities also means that teens have more opportunities to hide their online habits, he said.
Children have full internet access
"They have full Internet access wherever they are at this point," Siciliano said.
The survey found that 43% of teens have accessed simulated violence online, 36% have read about sex online, and 32% went online to see nude photos or pornography.
The survey reported that teens use a variety of tactics to avoid being monitored by their parents. Over half of teens surveyed said that they had cleared their browser history, while 46% had closed or minimised browser windows when a parent walked into the room. Other strategies for keeping online habits from parents included hiding or deleting instant messages or videos and using a computer they knew their parents wouldn't check.
Meanwhile, the survey found that 73.5% of parents trust their teens not to access age-inappropriate content online. Nearly one quarter of the surveyed parents (23%) reported that they are not monitoring their children's online behaviours because they are overwhelmed by technology.
Parents can put their foot down
Siciliano said that is no excuse.
"Parents can put their foot down and they can get educated," he said. "They can learn about the technology at hand. They can learn about their children's lives."
Many of the parents surveyed were already doing just that, with 49% of parents using parental controls and 44% obtaining their children's email and social network passwords. Additionally, three in four parents said they've had a conversation about online safety with their kids.
The results were drawn from a nationwide online survey completed by 1,004 teens aged 13-17 and 1,013 parents, conducted May 4-29 by TRU of Chicago, a youth research company. Its margin of error was plus or minus 3%.
(Gianna Palmer, Reuters Health, June 2012)
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