Parents admit to keeping tabs on their children online

A study has found that the majority of parents regularly check their children’s online activity, despite how guilty it makes them feel.

 

Alex Balan of internet safety firm, BullGuard, conducted a survey of 2,000 parents and found that six out of ten mums and dads confess to reading their youngsters' emails, texts and Facebook messages.

 

As reported by the survey, one third of parents with children aged 10-17 felt remorse after invading their youngster’s privacy.

 

Despite feeling guilty, these parents believe that snooping is necessary in order to keep a close eye on their children, with 10% going as far as learning their offspring’s passwords.

 

According to Alex Balan, parents face a huge dilemma as to whether or not they should hack into their children’s accounts:

 

“It’s understandable to want to keep tabs on the sites that they are visiting but whether to read private emails, texts and messages poses a real quandary for parents.”

 

The study discovered that 20% of parents have been “shocked” by the content they found in their child’s text messages or Facebook accounts, with 17% intervening after a child was threatened online.