Trendspotting: Parental Controls

By Angie Argabrite, Thursday, June 7, 2012, at 9:01 am.

In most countries, approximately half of parents say they have hacked into their teenager’s Facebook account; in the U.S., 60 percent of parents fess up to it, while in New Zealand, 44 percent say they’ve done it. In most cases, American parents go to greater lengths to keep tabs on a teen: 75 percent stay connected with their child on social networks, compared with 10 percent of parents in Japan and 33 percent in France “friending” their child on Facebook. Nevertheless, U.K. parents are most likely to suspect their kid of “sexting” and Spanish parents are most likely to suspect that their child is illegally downloading music. An equal number of parents in the U.K. and U.S.—20 percent—think their child may be watching pornography. Though most parents say they worry about how their child presents himself online, a study of Australian teens showed that teens are actually more proficient than any other age group at managing a digital footprint. But determined parents are pulling out all the stops to keep an extra set of eyes on Junior—think GPS trackers that offer a bird’s-eye view of the walk home from school, day care centers equipped with webcams and TeddyCams. One Australian dad even busted his teen’s raging New Year’s party from 500 miles away by logging on to an energy monitor that notifies him about the house’s electricity usage. And because 75 percent of teens own a cellphone, more parents are using apps such as Safely phone controls to block calls, texts and apps at preset times. When today’s kids slam their doors and demand that mom and dad “butt out,” what they really mean is “log out.” Smart marketers won’t take sides.

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