Parenting Minors in the Age of Social Media and the Internet: Are Parents Doing Enough to Protect Their Children?
Open Access
Author:
Farash, Grace
Area of Honors:
Criminology
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Sarah Anne Font, Thesis Supervisor Stacy Silver, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Child exploitation Sharenting Social Media Internet Use Child Predators Privacy Parents Minors Social Media Use
Abstract:
A study conducted by Pew Research Center in 2020 was used in this research in an attempt to better understand the relationship between parents with minor-aged children and the potential exposure to various threats on social media and the internet. Using various attributes of parent respondents, this research is able to relate said attributes to possible attitudes and opinions parents may have on numerous aspects of social media. With the hopes of furthering the discussion of safe online use, this research aims the discussion onto the responsibility of parents to be the protection and advocate of those who can’t, children. A newer social media phenomenon named “sharenting” has also been the center of internet safety discussion as it opens the possibility of greater threats towards children. The data shows statistical significance pertaining to multiple variables including the significance of household income, age of the respondent, education level, and more to multiple dependent variables. These findings lead us to conclude that parents do indeed need to be more aware of what they post of their children online, what their children post, what their children watch, and much more.