Generational Gap
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The age at which children start using the internet is decreasing, thanks to widespread access to smartphone which are always connected to the internet. Too often children access the web without adult supervision, and often enough parents lack the internet literacy to guide their kids and assess risks.
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Seventy-five percent of the young people in Europe say that they are sure they can hide their internet activity from their parents. Another European study, commissioned by antivirus brand McAfee, reveals that there is a worrying gap between teenagers’ actual internet use and what their parents know about it.
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Over thirty percent of European parents and over forty percent of Italian parents is sure that their adolescent children are fully transparent about their internet use, and over sixty percent of parents are sure that their children to not seek access to non-age-appropriate content. However, the distance between parental expectations and children’s real internet use creates space for dangerous, reckless, and even illegal behaviors:
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- Thirty-four percent of European youths, admits to illegally downloading music
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- Twenty-six percent of Italian teenagers report having published or share sexual images of themselves, twice as many as the European average, which is eleven percent.
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- Twenty-five percent of respondents admit to using the web to find homework solutions.
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- Twenty-three percentage of European youths admits to intentionally accessing pornography.
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- Fifteen percent of European youths report meeting in person with a stranger they befriended on the internet.
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- Forty-four percent of parents claim they are fully able to monitor their children’s online use, but only twenty-five precents of children say they do not know how to hide their online behaviors from parents.
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The research has also revealed that most kids and adolescents use a number of strategies to hide their internet use:
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- Half part of respondents report hiding their browser windows when their parents come into the room.
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- Almost forty percent of respondents delete their internet chronology.
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- Almost thirty percent of respondents accesses the internet outside their home for privacy and deletes inappropriate content.
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Having grown up online, today’s kids often are more skilled than their parents in accessing and navigating the internet, which makes it hard for parents to guide them and inform them, which leaves kids vulnerable. But parents must not give up! They have to overcome their limitations and familiarize themselves with the complex online world, and keep up with the threats that lurk on the web.
