Parents and Teens: Filters & Content Creation Parental Empowerment and Convergence Dialogue Internet Education Foundation February 17, 2006 Washington, DC

Parents & Teens: IEF Feb. 17, Washington, DC Methodology Interviewed 1100 parent-child pairs via telephone Sample pulled from RDD samples 4 focus groups with MS & HS students Tracking surveys of Adult Americans

Parents and Teens: IEF Feb. 17, 2006 – Washington, DC Teen & Parent Internet Basics 87% of teens online 80% of parents online 68% of all adult Americans online Of 13% of teens who don’t go online, 1 in 10 say that fears, bad experiences, or their parents keep them offline 47% of offline teens once went online 50% of online Americans have broadband Overall, there are more American adults who are not online (32%), than who have dial-up internet access (28%).

Parents and Teens: IEF Feb. 17, 2006 – Washington, DC Protecting Teens Online Filtering—54% of families filter Public computing location—73% House internet rules—64% 62% of parents….33% of teens say they/their parents check up on teens after they go online Filtering up, others stable

Parents and Teens: IEF Feb. 17, 2006 – Washington, DC Demographic Differences Younger parents & parents of younger teens are more likely to filter/monitor African-American and Hispanic parents generally report greater levels of all rules/observational behavior Online parents monitor more

Parents & Teens: IEF Feb. 17, Washington, DC Online Behavior Parent & Teen Attitudes 81% of parents and 79% of teens agree that kids are not as careful as they should be about the information they give out online 62% of parents and 62% of teens agree that kids do things online that they wouldn’t want their parents to know about Overall, most parents believe that the internet is a good thing for their children

Parents & Teens: IEF Feb. 17, Washington, DC Parents Plead: Make it Easy For Us Parents overwhelmed Less Tech Savvy –82% of online teens have helped an adult do something online that they couldn’t do with out assistance –72% of online adults have helped another adult –54% of online adults have helped a child (under 18)

Parents and Teens: IEF Feb. 17, 2006 – Washington, DC Teens and Content Creation 57% of online teens have created content for the internet –19% Blog –Website: personal (22%), group or school assignment (32%) –33% Share original content Artwork Photos Writing Videos Songs –19% Remix content found online into a new creation

Parents and Teens: IEF Feb. 17, 2006 – Washington, DC Creation of Content by Adults 44% of American adults have created some kind of content 21% have posted photos to a website 17% have posted written material 18% have remixed content they’ve found online into a new creation

Parents and Teens: IEF Feb. 17, 2006 – Washington, DC Content creation by Adults (2) 13% maintain a personal website 9% have a blog 7% have used a webcam to post live images to a website 6% have posted artwork 5% have posted an audio file to a website 3% have posted a video file Using the Content 11% have an iPod or mp3 player Of those, 27% have downloaded a podcast or internet radio program so they could listen to it later. 27% of adults read blogs, 38% of teens do

Parents and Teens: IEF Feb. 17, 2006 – Washington, DC Final Thoughts Parents believe in the internet, and think it is good for their kids… …but they also worry about how their teens are using it And they want tools to help keep their teens safe –Tools must be flexible… –…but simple and easy to use Amateur content is already a big issue and is only going to get bigger

Parents and Teens: IEF Feb. 17, 2006 – Washington, DC Related Pew Internet Reports Protecting Teens Online Teens and Technology Teen Content Creators and Consumers Content Creation Online

Amanda Lenhart Senior Research Specialist Pew Internet & American Life Project