Study: Parents Rarely Aware of Cyberbullying

Parents in the U.S. are only aware that their children are being cyberbullied about a fraction of the time, according to a study released today. 

The comScore survey, commissioned by San Bruno-based , which monitors kids' online social networking activities, surveyed more than 2,000 parents with children ages 8 to 17 and concluded that fewer than 9 percent of parents are aware of when cyberbullying occurs, despite data that shows nearly 18 percent of children claim to have been victims of cyberbullying. 

The main reason why parents are so out of the loop? According to the study, kids use social networking sites in different locations and with a wide variety of devices that can't be viewed by parents. 

“Parents know they need to monitor their children’s social network activities, and for the most part they do take at least some type of precaution to help protect their kids,” George Garrick, SocialShield’s CEO, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the monitoring techniques that most parents think are good enough to help keep their kids safe too often aren’t good enough at all." 

Although more than a third of parents said they "friended" their children to keep track of their social networking activity, a large percentage of children use private chat messages, groups, closed forums and text messaging to communicate online, according to the study. 

Also, while more than half of parents said their children use social networking sites on a family computer, 42 percent said their children use a personal computer and 25 percent of children use a cell phone. The study also said 8 percent of children get access to social networking sites from a tablet, another 8 percent from a friend's computer and 5 percent from a school computer. 

These factors contribute to why so many parents don't find out about cyberbullying despite their best efforts to monitor their children's online activity, said Steve DeWarns, a Bay Area police officer and chief safety officer for Social Shield. 

"Protecting your kids from harm—whether they’re out in the real world or on social networks—is the most important job a parent has," DeWarns said in a statement. "All parents have the best of intentions, but most don’t understand the plethora of ways and all of the places where their kid could fall prey to cyberbullying or other dangers."

To learn more about cyberbullying, check out the Cyberbullying Research Center and the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

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