Pew Study Finds Most Parents Monitor Their Teen's Digital Lives

New technology is changing the lifestyle of most teenagers nowadays. And most parents did not hesitate to monitor their teen's digital activities to ensure their welfare, according to a new study. 

The report of Pew Research Center involved parents of children aged 13 to 17. The results showed that over 60 percent of parents examine the websites that their teens browse and visit. Likewise, half of them confessed that they are glimpsing through their teen's text messages and calls, according to NBC News.

Most parents also said that they have grounded their teens in using their gadgets. And 65 percent of them said they have taken away the Internet rights and other gadgets such as cellphones as punishment.

The research also found out that 40 percent of parents know the password of the cell phone of their teens and 48 percent of parents identify the password of the email accounts of their teens. Less than a quarter of the parents used electronic devices to check or control the behavior of their children.

Hence, most parents used the "hands-on approach" in their probing. In the study, 16 percent of the parent-respondents used parental controls to restrict their teens on the use of cell phones -- having the same percentage using some monitoring tools to trace the location of their teens using their cell phones.

The digital world is invading many people's lives, especially among teens. Nad Adventist.org reported the findings of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. The research revealed that there is 93 percent of teenagers linked to their friends through the use of social networking online and cell phones.

Likewise, 84 percent of teenagers have cell phones, 4 out of 5 teens have Facebook, Twitter or other social networking accounts. Thus, 7 out of 10 teens are sending messages through SMS at least once a day and 64 percent are texting many times in a day. It is also identified that two-thirds of the teens connect to their social networks many times in a week and 62 percent of all parents of teens said that their teens are frequently linked with their friends using their gadgets.

Most parents sense danger to their teens with the use of new technology. They admit that their teens can explore and see things they should not be seeing, at least not at this time of their lives. So most of them would like to control the behavior of their teens and monitor their digital activities and online presence.