With the growing danger that the Internet poses, more parents are starting to monitor their children's online activity.
Pew Research Center has conducted an online survey of parents who have 13 to 17 year olds under their care, taking into consideration the practices that they partake to protect their children from unwanted websites, cyber-bullying and other harmful activities that happen online.
According to the study, 61 percent of parents say that they monitor the websites that their children visit, and 16 percent monitor their children's social media websites. Moreover, 56 percent claim that they follow or friend their children so that they can keep a closer eye on what happens on their social media feeds.
There is also an increased amount of parents using website blockers and filters as 39 percent of parents have subscribed to or still continue to subscribe to an online blocking, filtering or monitoring service.
But the monitoring does not stop with online services only as some parents have also monitored their children's SMS messaging. 48 percent of parents have looked through their teens' text messages and 16 percent of parents use blockers on their children's phones as well.
There is also an ongoing effort amongst a large majority of parents to educate their children in proper use of social media, communications and online surfing. 94 percent of parents claim to have talked to their teen about what is appropriate for sharing online and what is not, an of that number 40 percent say they do so on a regular basis. 95 percent have also communicated to their children what content they are to view online, and 39 percent claim to do so on a regular basis.
Other forms of media are also discussed in some households as 95 percent have discussed what are appropriate for viewing on television, books, magazines and other forms of media. 36 percent of those households claim to do so regularly.
