And it is that thanks to an ExpressVPN study in which they have been surveyed more than 2,000 fathers and mothers about the way in which their children control and use mobile devices, it has been possible to verify how children really use mobile phones and a lot. This is a question that is increasing more and more so perhaps, as a parent or simply out of curiosity, you are interested in knowing some of this information.
Do parents control their children?
These American and English parents of children between the ages of 4 and 13 have been asked precisely about the use that their children give to mobile phones and social networks; those children who are in the pre-adolescent stage and are already getting to know the internet. 53% of parents have acknowledged that they use the mobile an average of 28 minutes up to date; we insist, on average, since the younger they are, the less they use it and the older they are, the more minutes they use the mobile phone.
Beyond the minutes that children spend in front of the mobile, one of the issues that should interest the most is the content that children view. Without going any further, 87% of children consume either Netflix or YouTube, while 80% play online with other people. And with all this data in hand, it is when parents have been asked if they really control their children when they are online or if, on the contrary, they do nothing to do so.
Here 54% of parents have admitted that indeed control and know what children see in their day to day with the mobile, knowing what they see and what they do. The way in which parents control children are those already known to all, as is the case with the phone review, the search history in the browser and many others known to all. Of course, what most parents do not allow is that children create accounts on social networks, especially at the most premature ages, since in this sense, children can be subjected to greater problems and more dangerous exposure.
These are the dangers they are exposed to
IF there is something that worries everyone as a parent, it is the place where our children can go and what they can be exposed to on the Internet; and it is that within the network there are numerous issues that can put our children in danger despite the fact that it is a very useful tool. We talked about cases of cyberbullying or threats that go as far as extortion. All of them have been named by the parents in this study.
It is revealing the fact that 59% of the parents who have been surveyed are afraid that their children will suffer from bullying on the net; something that, on the other hand, is usually very, very normal. Beyond this possibility lie other fears such as the fact that children are manipulated by someone that they do not know or that can enter sites that are not suitable for their age. What we do highlight, since it draws a lot of attention, is that the parents name, of course a fear is the fact that ask your children for personal informationbut it is the least worried about all the fears.
Children have also raised their voices and have been asked about their fears on the internet, to which the majority have responded that their greatest fear is seeing horror photos and videos, although the most commented has been the fact that someone could be rude to them. Cyberbullying, for its part, ranks 4th, a fact that reveals that children are not as aware of fear as parents are. What is worrying about this question is when we verify that 22% of children have suffered cyberbullying and 17% have stated that they have spoken with a stranger sharing personal information. Of course, there are many children who have also recognized that they tend to lie about their age, location or about how they feel, since one in six children admits to lying.
Within the study, much has been said about the platforms where it is more dangerous for our children to move and where more cases of cyberbullying occur; This will give us as parents a clue as to where children are harassed the most in both the United States and the United Kingdom and it will be where we should focus so that we do not have problems:
In United States
- YouTube (43%)
- Facebook (35%)
- TikTok (28%)
- Roblox (27%)
- Instagram (26%)
In the United Kingdom
- Roblox (34%)
- YouTube (34%)
- TikTok (25%)
- Fortnite (21%)
- Facebook (16%)
Talk to them and give them advice
The duty of a parent is to advise and guide the child to have the best possible performance and learn to identify threats and dangers, so in any case, when they start to use the internet, we have to warn them that the problem is there. danger and that it is complicated at times identify potential threats.
Therefore, there are certain issues in which, if you are a parent, you need to influence so that your child is well educated and you should not have and regret problems in the not too distant future:
- Teach to give data: When we are on the internet, one of the most important issues is the first glance, the first thing they see and think about us. And that is where our son’s username comes into play, since it is necessary that if he is called Alberto Martín, his name should be User is not AlberMart09 or the like, but stay away from these issues.
- Be honest and talk about the dangers: Of course, we have to be honest, talk to them and admit that there are problems and dangers in the network like fake profiles that they are not who they say they are and can honestly be a problem because they can steal your information. For this reason, it is important that you give all the necessary confidence to your son, in case he one day suffers cyberbullying, that he may have the arrests to tell you about it.
- Use parental controls: No matter how much trust we give our son and how much we make him aware, it is also necessary that we know where he is going and what he does with the mobile, so it is very important that you know how to use mobile parental control and you can control it from a distance
Help yourself with a VPN
So that all this does not happen, so that we never have a problem with our security again, there is a great possibility that is to use a vpn, a virtual private network that is going to give us an addition as far as network security is concerned. Thanks to this you will be able to keep both your devices, as well as your entire family that connects to the network, fully protected in the protected network when it is online, encrypting all data from them.
In addition, this will be a possibility that will increase the anonymity of whoever is browsing, bringing a different IP address to each device in a location where we are not.
