Teenagers’ Internet Use and Family Rules: A Research Note

Abstract

The Internet poses challenges to parents who want their children to take advantage of online resources but also want to protect their children from questionable content. Using data from 749 dyads of American parents and their teenage children with Internet access, this study finds that the majority of parents report regulating their teenage children's Internet use, but parents report more monitoring (61%) than teens report (38%). Multivariate regression analyses indicate fathers, younger parents, parents who use the Internet with their children, and parents with younger teens engage in a higher level of parental monitoring. This study provides a first look at parental monitoring of children's Internet use and points to the need to study family rules from both parents’ and children's perspectives.

School children’s use of digital devices, social media and parental knowledge and involvement – the case of Abu Dhabi

“…Parents should encourage their children to talk to them about their ideas on how school work could be part of this lifestyle. Such communication is called for in many related research studies (Wang et al 2005;Nikken and Jansz 2011;Dodge et al 2011). Guidance or effective control from parents would reflect on their behavior when using social networking (Haythornthwaite 2005).…”

“…2.5 Parental involvement and attitudes towards young children's usage Wang et al (2005) suggest that parental awareness of and involvement in their children's Internet use is increasing; and given the risks, teens derive many benefits and gratifications from Internet use. Children usually use social networking without guidance or effective control, and this in turn reflects the challenges that have negative effects on family stability (Haythornthwaite 2005).…”

“…Concerns have been expressed about the amount of time teens spend online (Gross 2004), and lack of parental control over their Internet use (Wang et al 2005). …”

Parental Knowledge of Adolescents’ Online Content and Contact Risks

“…The literature suggests that parents tend to report more monitoring and knowledge-related behaviors than adolescents but that adolescents' reports are more strongly related to behavioral outcomes than their parents' reports (Abar et al 2015). Also, with regard to internet use, parents are found to report more monitoring practices such as rule-setting, technical mediation, safety communication and supervision (Liau et al 2008;Wang et al 2005;Sonck et al 2013) than adolescents. Future research could take into account the relevance of parent-child discrepancies in reports on monitoring practices in terms of parental knowledge.…”

Online "predators" and their victims: Myths, realities, and implications for prevention and treatment.

“…Young children are not as accessible online as adolescents. They use the Internet less for communication, and they are more supervised in their online activities (Roberts, Foehr, & Rideout, 2005;Wang, Bianchi, & Raley, 2005). Also, they are less likely to respond to overtures from online child molesters because they are, for developmental reasons, less interested in relationships, sex, and romance than are adolescents (DeLamater & Friedrich, 2002).…”