Texting, Sexting, and Cyberbullying: Qualtrics Releases New Study about Parenting in the Age of Technology
SALT LAKE CITY–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Parenting in the age of technology poses unique, sometime dangerous, challenges. Qualtrics, the world’s leading enterprise survey platform provider, today announced the findings of a study analyzing how parents view technology in their children’s lives and what they are doing to address the risks that come with the use of technology, specifically smartphones.
The study, which polled 1,039 parents of children ranging from 8 to 17 years old, revealed parents are most concerned with children using dating apps, though 30 percent of parents say it’s likely children are using them. In addition, 38 percent of parents believe children are sexting, with the parents of sons being twice as likely as parents of daughters to believe their child is sexting.
“As technology becomes more and more pervasive, it’s important to find measurable ways to assess its impact on our day-to-day lives,” said Mike Maughan, head of global insights for Qualtrics. “Parents face an especially daunting challenge as it relates to technology’s impact on their children. Our hope is these insights will shed new light on how parents can best protect their children from negative aspects of technology while leveraging the positives.”
Other concerns include cyberbullying and texting while driving. According to the findings, 49 percent say it’s likely kids of driving age are texting while driving. One in 10 parents believe their kids have been cyberbullied, and 13 percent say children have definitely or probably cyberbullied someone else.
Additional findings from the survey include:
- 43 percent believe children have accessed inappropriate content online
- 42 percent of parents say it’s likely children have engaged with a stranger online
- 56 percent believe their kids will lose or break their cell phones
- When asked what is the right age for a child to own a smartphone, the most popular answer was 12 years old
The majority of parents take action to combat these risks with 50 percent using an Internet filter to screen inappropriate content, 73 percent monitoring content their children access on smartphones and 64 percent monitoring the amount of time their children spend on smartphones.
On the positive side, 96 percent of parents believe a smartphone will help their child in case of emergency and 75 percent of parents believe technology has had a positive impact on children’s education. Interestingly, parents are four times more likely to say social media has had a positive impact on children’s self-esteem than a negative one.
To view an infographic with details about the study, please click here.
To view a video will details about the study, please click here.
Visit this link to view the full report.
About Qualtrics
Qualtrics is a rapidly growing software-as-a-service company and the provider of the world’s leading insight platform. More than 8,000 enterprises worldwide, including half of the Fortune 100 and 99 of the top 100 business schools, rely on Qualtrics technology. Our solutions make it fast and easy to capture customer, employee, and market insights in one place. These insights help our clients make informed, data-driven business decisions. Global enterprises, academic institutions, and government agencies use Qualtrics to collect, analyze, and act on voice of the customer, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, 360-degree reviews, brand, market, product concept, and employee feedback. To learn more, please visit www.qualtrics.com.
