Online Safety: A Parent’s Perspective
Overview
Published in August 2020, Digital Schoolhouse's report, Online Safety: A Parent’s Perspective, explores parents' perceptions of online safety in education and at home. The report is offers the alternate perspective from the previous September 2018 Digital Schoolhouse report Online Safety Report: A Pupil’s Perspective.
Written by Shahneila Saeed, Programme Director of Digital Schoolhouse, the Online Safety report report surveyed over 2,000 parents about their approach, and perception of, online safety in the home. The report shows that while many parents take online safety seriously and put in place measures to keep their children and families safe, there are gaps in the provision of online safety advice. The report also identifies a gender gap in the confidence in managing online safety and that children and parents have a different perception of what is safe.
Key Findings
- 85% of parents speak to their children about online safety
- 71% of parents use parental controls on their devices either sometimes or regularly
- 70% of parents know where to find information on how to play video games safely and responsibly online
- 75% of parents believe in the importance of online safety education, with over half using information provided by schools in their households
- But while 55% of parents set and enforce time restrictions on use of screen time and online activities, only 19% of children reported limits or restrictions - suggesting a disparity between perceptions of safety
- 61% of men believe they could speak confidently to their children about online safety, compared to 51% of women
Download
The full report is available via the Digital Schoolhouse website.
