Michael McKinnon Parents Keep Tabs via Facebook Interview

44% of parents are keeping tabs on their teens by accessing their Facebook accounts without their consent, AVG Technologies latest Digital Diaries global study reveals.

Digital Coming of Age, the fifth instalment of AVG's Digital Diaries study, features responses to AVG's questions to 4,400 parents with 14-17 year olds in 11 countries, including Australia and New Zealand. It found that more than a third of parents were concerned that their teen's interaction with social media sites could affect their future job prospects. Spanish parents (65%) were the most concerned, while parents in the Czech Republic (29%) were the least worried, compared with Italy (57%), Germany (47%), France (45%), Australia (42%), US (40%), Canada (38%), New Zealand (37%), Japan (33%) and the UK (30%).

Michael McKinnon, Security Advisor at AVG (AU/NZ) Pty Ltd, said, 'AVG's latest research encourages us to consider whether Facebook and other social networking sites are creating a new kind of parental relationship, or whether we are in effect spying on our teens? These sites are providing parents with new methods to monitor what their kids are doing without necessarily having to be -heavy handed' or to quiz their child directly."

Digital Coming of Age also unearths that nearly half of all parents surveyed globally felt that schools were effective in teaching their teens to use the internet responsibly. UK parents have the most faith in the teaching ability of schools (59%), while the Czech Republic had the lowest (31%), compared with Spain (54%), Australia (53%), United States (49%), New Zealand (47%), Germany (44%), Canada (43%), France (43%) and Italy (35%).

Will Gardner, CEO, ChildNet International, commented: "We know from our work in schools that children and young people are using a wide range of devices to surf the net and we also hear from many parents who are confused about how their children are getting online and what they are doing online. One of our key messages is to encourage parents to talk with their children and young people about what they're doing online, who they're talking to and to find out whether they have any safety concerns. It's great when families can connect online, but offline conversations are also a key part of staying safe online."

Other key findings from the Digital Coming of Age include:
UK parents are most likely to suspect teens of -sexting': nearly one quarter (23%) of UK parents suspect their kids of sexting, compared with Australia (22%), United States (21%), Spain (21%), Canada (20%), New Zealand (17%), Japan (15%), Italy (11%), France (10%), Czech Republic (13%) and Germany (9%)
Spanish parents (45%) are most suspicious their teens are illegally downloading music: compared with parents in the Czech Republic (35%), France (30%), UK (28%), Australia and New Zealand (27%) and US (19%) – UK teens could even face up to ten years in jail for illegal downloads, as a result of Britain signing the disputed Anti-Countering Trade Agreement (ACTA) bill.
Just under half of parents surveyed are concerned their teens mobile photos are geo-tagged
One fifth of UK and US parents suspect their teens of accessing pornography on their PC: compared with over a quarter of Spanish parents, and 17% of Australian parents.
One fifth of UK and US parents have seen explicit or abusive messages on their offspring's social networks: compared with over one quarter of Australian and New Zealand parents
Parents -friending' teens on Facebook: over half of UK parents are connected with their teens on Facebook, compared with United States (72%), Canada (66%), Italy (66%), Spain (64%), New Zealand (60%), Australia (57%), Germany (51%), Czech Republic (50%), France (32%) and Japan (10%).

Interview with Michael McKinnon

Question: Where you surprised that 44% of parents are keeping tabs on their teens by accessing their Facebook accounts without their consent?

Michael McKinnon: I was a little surprised that parents where accessing their children's Facebook accounts without consent. Although it's not surprising given that in the old days Mum and Dad used to be the gatekeeper of the phone and nowadays with Facebook, teenagers are able to directly connect with each other which is why Mums and Dads have been cut out of the loop a little bit and feel it's necessary to try and keep tabs on what their children are up too.

The question we asked was 'Have you ever accessed your teenagers Facebook account, without them knowing?" and 44% of parents admitted to doing that.


Question: Do you believe Facebook and other social networking sites are creating a new kind of parental relationship or is it basically spying?

Michael McKinnon: It certainty brings up those issues. Interestingly a question that is quite complementary, in the survey, was 'Do you make sure you're friends with your teenager, on Facebook, so you can see what they're doing?" and 57% of Australian parents said 'Yes, that they do that" and it was more significant, globally, for Mums. 60% of Mums globally were more likely to answer yes to that question, than Dads.


Question: So it is safe to say there are more mothers than fathers keeping tabs on their teens by accessing their Facebook accounts without their consent?

Michael McKinnon: There are some interesting subtle differences between Mums and Dads. With the question 'Have you ever accessed your teenagers Facebook account, without them knowing?" or 'Do you make sure your friends with your teenager, on Facebook, so you can see what they're doing?" Mums feature more heavily than Dads in that regard.

There were some other questions that were asked, of the parents, around what content they believe their teenagers have access to, in three parts: pornography, gambling and illegally downloading music. As we might suspect for the question of pornography, Dads were much more suspecting and a lot higher than Mums (as they were less suspecting) and when the results were split between the sexes, teen girls was 12% and teen boys was 26% which is twice suspecting in regards to boys.
Gambling was really low, which is good; there was no significant difference between responses from Mums and Dads; there was only 2% for Australia, for gambling.
There was no surprise regarding illegally downloaded music with results more than a quarter (27%). Nearly a third of Dads suspected their teenager of illegally downloading music yet only 1 in 5 Mums suspect the same (21%).


Question: How are parents approaching situations where their child doesn't want to be Facebook friends?

Michael McKinnon: This situation actually happened in my own family. My younger sister de-friended my Mum on Facebook because my Mum took photos from her Facebook profile and put it on her digital photo frame at Christmas. It was interesting that my sister freaked out because she had a perception that something that was on Facebook should only remain on Facebook and she didn't fathom that people could download the photos on Facebook. I think that is one of the interesting facts about content that ends up on social media networks as we have become so used to ubiquitous access and being able to get to this content whenever we feel like it and the whole old-school mentality of downloading things onto your computer is fading although it is still technically possible.

The survey showed that one of the reasons we suspect parents are hacking into their teenagers Facebook profiles is more to do with their concerns over the future ramifications regarding their employment prospects. When teenagers go to get a job in a few years' time parents are concerned about what will still be hanging around on their Facebook profile or digital footprint and how that will affect their career prospects later on.


Question: What advice will you give your children when they begin using Facebook?

Michael McKinnon: I have two younger children aged 4 and 5 and I look at social media cautiously. I need to make sure that they're being exposed to human relationships in the real world and are able to deal with those in the same sort of pace that they can deal with those relationships online. There is the key difference; in a face-to-face relationship with a real human there is a whole bunch of other queues that we can take in regarding how we deal with that communication yet online there are a lot of things missing because it is just text and emoticons which makes it a much more difficult place to form a relationship.


Question: Is it important for parents to remember there are age restrictions for social media profiles?

Michael McKinnon: Absolutely! I know of 10 years olds who have Facebook profiles which is against Facebook's policy that states that a child needs to be 13 years or older to have a Facebook profile. The digital coming of age survey is the fifth part of Digital Diaries. Late last year there was an edition called Digital Maturity which was based on 10-13 year olds, the survey revealed that a quarter of 10-13 year olds are already on the major social networking sites. It's kind of scary that it is happening a lot earlier than Facebook actually wants and allows. Facebook has the 13 year old restriction because of a US law.


Question: Did the survey find that parents are quite confident with what is being taught in schools in regards to safe social media?

Michael McKinnon: Yes and I think that is because when we look at it there is a saturation of content in schools around cyber bullying, being safe online and protecting yourself and I think it's good that parents have seen that and as the survey confirms 53% said that the education system was doing it well to very well. The question we asked was 'How well is your teenager's school doing in helping them navigate the internet safety.

Interview by Brooke Hunter