Parental control applications are used as one of the parents’ efforts in protecting children from negative content on the internet. With this app, all child activities on the Internet can easily be monitored. But unfortunately according to recent studies turned out to be ineffective parental control applications.
The study was conducted by the University of Central Florida and revealed that this app, which can show which web pages your child visits, block certain websites, and restrict their use, may not be effective. In addition, the use of this app tends to create a wedge between parents and teenagers.
The online survey involved 200 parents who had at least one child aged 13 to 17. Half of these parents claimed to use parental control applications. These parents are more strict, demanding, and refuse to compromise with their children. Surprisingly, teenagers whose phones carry a parental control application app (parental control) are more likely to see explicit content than other teens, and feel abused online. Based on these results, it can be concluded that this application is not very effective.
The research then looked into the Google Play Store where they researched comments posted by parents and children (ages 8 to 19) around 736 parental control apps available for Android devices. Parents give most apps great reviews. And predictable, for children is not encouraging. 79% of them leave two or less star reviews (of five stars).
Children feel that this app is a violation of their privacy, and promotes “lazy parenting” by closing communication between the two parties. Children also complain that parental control applications turn their parents into stalkers, and prevent them from doing homework.
Both studies helped researchers conclude that currently available parental control applications do not guarantee the safety of children online. The report notes that teenagers need space so they can learn how to develop a “coping mechanism” that will help throughout their lives.
The report recommends that the next generation of parental control apps include features to keep parents engaged with their children, and teach youth how to deal with dangers online.
It seems that parents overconfidence in this application, and research shows that instead of using it to peek wherever their children go online, parents should be more involved with their teenage children. Find out what websites they visit, and discuss the things they see that affect them. Also, it is wise to talk about the dangers they can face when using the internet.
