Spanish parents are worried about cyberbullying and grooming, but they don't know what their children do online

He grooming, or what is the same, pedophile harassment through the Internet, is what most worries Spanish parents when their children surf the Internet, followed by Cyberbullying and pornography.

It is the conclusion reached by the study prepared by the security platform Qustodio 'Children and the Internet: the pending issue for Spanish parents', which was presented yesterday in Barcelona.

But the research, which includes 2,000 interviews with Spanish and American fathers and mothers, with children between the ages of five and 17, yields more interesting and surprising facts: how Six out of 10 parents in our country, with children over 12 years of age, do not consider it necessary to monitor their use of technology.

Threats change with age

The study of the Foundation 'Evolution of violence to children and adolescents in Spain according to victims (2009-2016)' already uncovered an alarming increase in cyberbullying and grooming by 410%, at a time when 90 percent of children under 10 have access to the Internet and one in four already has a mobile

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This increasingly early incorporation into new technologies means that parents have to rethink what dangers threaten their children. According to the conclusions of the Qustodio study:

  • Cyberbullying is the main concern of Spanish families with children between 5 and 12 years of age.

  • The concern for him pornographic content consumption What children do begins when they turn 9 years old.

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  • It is after 12 when the concern for the grooming It occupies the first position.

  • Anxiety because children access violent content on the Web is the issue that causes less anxiety among parents. Alarm more when children are between five and eight years old.

Unsupervised online in adolescence

The results obtained by this report are curious. According to the parents surveyed, the degree of concern about the risks of technology and the Internet reaches its highest level when children are between 9 and 14 years old. And yet 60 percent of Spaniards with children over 12 do not consider it necessary to monitor their use of technology, compared to 38% of Americans.

And it is that according to this report, the use that children make of technology remains a secondary concern, compared to other issues such as education, health and harassment in Spain, or psychological development and communication parents and children in States United.

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Among the most common Internet access control measures, according to Qustodio:

  • In Spain, limitation of the connection time and co-presence during the child's connection.

  • In U.S.A, review of search history and the use of parental controls.

In fact, 34% of American parents use any of these tools compared to 26% of Spanish parents. In both countries, its use is more common in families with children between 5 and 11 years old and decreases as children get older.

Youtube and Instagram, the favorites

The report presented yesterday indicates that tablets are the favorite device to access the Internet among children under eight years of age, because from that age begins to decrease their use in favor of the smartphone, the favorite among those over 12 years in Spain and 15 in the United States.

And as for what children see on the Internet, the conclusions are clear:

  • Youtube It is the first online content option for children between the ages of 5 and 17 in the US.
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  • In Spain Youtube downloads lowered from the 14, when they are surpassed by the chats and the services of instant messaging.

  • Instagram It becomes a favorite social network for children over 12 in Spain, while in the US It is less significant.

And with all these data, do you think they correspond to reality? Are we Spaniards so permissive in the use that children make of the Internet? Are we aware of the dangers and seek to educate them to be cautious in the use of technologies? What do you think.

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