Parents get training! 70% teens hide their online behavior

By Katrina Jones Jun 26th, 2012 ( 1 Comment )

Washington: About 70 percent of teens hide their online behavior from parents up from 45 percent in 2010, says a new study.

“And yet half of parents live under the assumption that their teen tells them everything he/she does online,” says Robert Siciliano on McAfee blog.

A new study called “The Digital Divide: How the Online Behavior of Teens is Getting Past Parents” (conducted by Tru Research and commissioned by McAfee) shows an alarming 70% of teens have hidden their online behavior from their parents, up from 45% in 2010.

Called as an changing time for teens regarding physical, psychological, mental and societal habits, Teenage has been changed since boom of internet.

Robert goes on to say, “This instant access to information and digital devices is having an impact on our teens that many of us as parents don’t realize. Some of the revealing consequences are shocking.”

Trends in Teens:

Friendships – 20% of teens said they had ended a friendship with someone because of something that happened on a social network.
Physical safety – 7% feared for their safety because of something that happened online, and 5% reported getting into a physical fight because of a problem that started online. More than 1 in 10 (12%) of teens have met someone in real life that they only knew online.
Criminal record – Over half of teens (51%) said they have hacked someone’s social networking account and 31% have pirated music and movies.
Cheating – 48% of teens admitted to looking for test answers online, and 16% have used a smartphone to do this.
Innocence - 46% of teens report accidentally accessing pornography online and 32% reported accessing pornography intentionally.

Trends in Parents:

And what about the parents? The study showed:

1 in 3 believes their teen to be much more tech-savvy then they are, leaving them feeling helpless to keep up with their teen’s online behaviors.
22% of parents do not believe their kids can get into trouble online.
Less than 1 in 10 parents are aware their teens are hacking accounts or downloading pirated content.
78% of parents are not worried about their kids cheating at school.
Only 12% of parents thought their children accessed pornography online.