In the 1970s heyday of fearing random kidnappings and/or budding delinquency, the TV news would end the night with: “It's 11 o’clock...do you know where your children are?” Parents today can usually answer at any hour with a sigh: “They’re looking at a screen.” But that’s not all bad.
In the latest PCMag Tech Parenting survey, we asked parents how their children are using technology, the skills they’re developing, and the concerns they still have.
The chart above details the major digital activities we asked about. Only 3% of parents said their children don't do any of that; most kids are watching videos on YouTube and playing video games. Even one in four kids are prepping to become an influencer and creating media content.
More important perhaps are the tech skills kids are honing (beyond selfies and vlogging). Sadly, parents said 8% of kids have zero in the way of tech talents, but the rest show high numbers for learning keyboarding (the very least of what they’ll likely need for a potential future in front of a PC) and computer literacy overall.
The number for coding at 25% is also encouraging. It would be nice if we can get at least as many future programmers as we do influencers in the future.
With the good comes with the bad, the bad being the worries parents have in general about technology. Overall, concern about the effects of technology are high at 66%.
What are parents concerned about? While the majority agree tech prepares kids for the future, most also would like to manage exactly what kids see online. And a slightly smaller majority feel that’s utterly impossible.
Perhaps the most telling thing is the question we asked about the age when a child should have that most coveted of devices: a smartphone. More than half agree somewhat or strongly that it shouldn’t happen before age 12. Only 31% think a phone before that magical cut-off age is okay.
So exactly what are the ages you should consider giving you children more freedom online? We queried parents and guardians for specific ages and saw some interesting results. When asked when kids should get social media, most indicated it should be after age 12, though a handful of them would allow kids even as low as age one to have a presence online. Which says a lot more about the parents than the babies. Notice that no one thinks that age 9 is a good time for milestone moves like getting a Facebook presence.
Perhaps the more important question is: What age will we start to trust our youths? Most parents are going to closely monitor their kids until at least age 10 or 12. That slides a bit when you get to age 16 (Old enough to drive and get a job? Let them be on the ‘gram!) or age 18, which is when the majority, 31%, said they’d stop.
Let’s also give a hand to that 3% of parents who said they would never, ever monitor their children online. Either you trust implicitly or are a heady mix of laidback and/or lazy.
This data is a small part of what we found in an extensive tech-parenting survey conducted from May 20 to 23, 2022. The 1,079 survey respondents were all adults over age 18, and they had to be parents of one or more children under the age of 18.
For more from the PCMag Tech Parenting survey, read our previous coverage: These Are the Best Tech Products for Kids—According to Parents.