A few weeks ago I was contacted asking if I would take part in a survey about tech worries for parents. This was part of some ongoing research by My Voucher Codes into the impact of social media and technology on our lives. I wasn’t sure how useful my answers would be as Bob is only young but I was happy to help.
I was asked to choose how much things bothered me from not worried at all to extremely worried. As Bob is quite young I felt that several of the questions didn’t apply but I am sure my answers would be very different when she is older.
Here are the results.
· Online bullying – 58% Extremely Worried
· Accessing adult content such as porn, swearing, nudity, sex and violence – 49% Extremely Worried
· Sharing inappropriate images – 49% Extremely Worried
· Grooming – 48% Concerned
· Access to extremism – 44% Concerned
· Addiction to social media – 57% Concerned
· Effects on Education – 66% Concerned
· Privacy – 55% Concerned
· Effect on long term health – 49% Concerned
· Running up huge bills. – 65% Not at all Worried
Tech Lounge has written about the results here.
I was surprised that not many parents were bothered about children running up huge bills. This may be to do with the age of the children. Bob can’t type in a password but I know my nephew accidentally ran up a big bill when he was downloading what he thought were free apps onto his phone.
It is hard to say how I will feel in the future but I think, when Bob is older, I would be most worried about cyber bullying. The results show that this is the area that makes parents extremely worried. I have heard of some terrible cases of this and would hope that my daughter wouldn’t be affected.
The Internet is a scary place! I have often joked with fellow bloggers on Twitter about how people may not be who they say they are. Cyber friendships do take a leap of faith as you only have the other persons word that they are telling the truth.
Obviously I expect a certain amount of sugar coating. Some bloggers wear their hearts on their sleeves whereas others only write about the happy times. I am quite open about the fact that my blog is my happy place. I don’t like to share our problems on here and I doubt that anyone would want to read about them. It is lovely to have a little piece of cyberspace that records all of our happy memories!
