If you’re a minor and you’re thinking of posting up that picture of you with a beer bottle or a cigarette in hand on Facebook for cred points among your peers – you might want to think twice. According to a recent survey of 2,000 internet users in the UK done by BullGuard (an internet security company), 55% of parents “keep an eye” on their children by checking their social networking profile, while an additional 5% would like to if they knew how. That’s how much parents want to keep an eye on their kids.
And if you were wondering why these parents were using websites like Facebook to check up on their kids: 29% admitted that they are overprotective, while 24% believe that it’s the only way they can really see what their child is up to. Some parents have even gone so far to set up an account just for the sole purpose of snooping on their children, though out of the 16% of parents who attempt to “friend” their kids – 30% get their requests rejected.
With social networks becoming more a part of everyday in today’s world as opposed to many years ago, kids should expect their parents to get tech savvy enough to take advantage of them for spying purposes – so if they don’t want to get busted for doing “bad things” they should get their privacy settings sorted out – or not post incriminating evidence at all. How many of you have your parents on Facebook? Do you guys trade stories and links on each other’s walls?
Filed in . Read more about Children, Facebook, Social Networks and Spy.