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Study Reveals Parents Need Better Cybersmarts
A survey commissioned by the National Center
for Missing & Exploited
Children® (NCMEC) and Cox Communications
reveals that, while nearly half of the
parents surveyed monitor their children’s
online activity daily or weekly, the other
half admit they don’t even know that
monitoring tools are available.
Other key findings:
| Over half (51%)
of parents either do not have or do
not know if they have software on their
computer(s) that monitors where their
teenager(s) go online and with whom they
interact. |
| 42% of parents do
not review the content of what their
teenager(s) read and/or type in chat
rooms or via instant messaging. |
| Teenagers who Instant
Message use chat lingo to communicate
and parents don’t know the meanings
of some of the most commonly used phrases.
57% don't know LOL (Laughing Out Loud),
68% don't know BRB (Be Right Back),
and 92% don't know A/S/L (Age/Sex/Location). |
| 95% of parents couldn’t
identify common chat room lingo that
teenagers use to warn people they’re
chatting with that their parents are
watching. Those phrases are POS (Parent
Over Shoulder) and P911 (Parent Alert). |
| Nearly three out
of 10 (28%) of parents don’t
know or are not sure if their teens
talk to strangers online. |
| 30% of parents allow
their teenagers to use the computer
in private areas of the house such
as a bedroom or a home office. Parents
say they are more vigilant about where
their teen(s) go online if the computer
is in a public area of the household. |
| 58% of parents surveyed
say they review the content of what
their teenager(s) read and/or type
in chat rooms or via Instant Messaging;
42% do not. |
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