Teenage Online Behavior: Teens Use The Internet More Than What Their Parents Thought

In the new generation, internet is almost everything. There's really a big difference compared to the old times where teens have to dig the information from a pile of books but now, almost all the information that a teenager needs can be found on the internet.

No doubt that the internet has helped people a lot but we all know that the internet can also be a place of several bad and harmful information that are not good for young children. Since most parents already know this, they surely want to know what their children are up to when going online.

Research Data

The data of the survey performed by TRU marketing research firm which was commissioned by McAfee, have revealed that teens are using the internet more than what their parents have thought according to Livescience. The survey had a total of 1,004 teen respondents with an age bracket of 13 to 17 and 1,013 Parents of teens.

Parents thought that their child is using the internet with just an average of two hours per day but according to teen participants, they use the internet for about five hours everyday. Twenty-two percent of parent participants believed that their child is busy visiting social networking sites like Facebook but the real thing is, 41 percent of teens admitted that they are constantly checking their social networking accounts.

Forty-three percent of teens have visited violent sites and 36 percent accessed porn sites. Seventy-one percent of teens did something to hide their online activities like clearing the browsing history and minimizing windows so that their parents won't see what they're up to.

Recommendation for Parents

All parents surely would do everything to protect their children from malicious information that are freely accessible on the internet but most of them don't know exactly what to do. Here are tips that parents can do to prevent their child from accessing those violent and nasty things online.

Constant Communication

In a post from WebMD, Anne Collier, executive director of Net Family News Inc. advised that parents should have constant communication with their children regarding their online activities. They must take involvement in their children's learning about the internet.

Safety Software

There are many downloadable parental control software compatible with any computer to block certain types of websites that your child might possibly access. Just make sure to download software with the antivirus enabled to protect your PC from harm.