One in Four 19-Year-Olds in the U.S. Face Tight Parental Control Online

More than a quarter of young adults in the United States whose parents buy antivirus software may face online parental control, according to a Bitdefender survey.

Some 25.3 percent parents of late teenagers and young adults (19 years old and older) consider parental control “very important” when buying antivirus software, according to a Bitdefender survey of 1,000 AV software buyers throughout the United States.

Still, late teenagers face less parental control than younger children, according to the study. Parents’ vigilance peaks when their children are aged 7 through 10 then gradually tapers off into early adulthood, the survey showed.

Some 51.3 percent place great importance on parental control for kids from the ages of seven to 10. The number drops to 46.3 percent of parents with children between the ages of 11 to 14, and to 45.9 percent of parents with teens between the ages of 15 to 18, according to the survey conducted early this year while researching the Parental Control feature of the Bitdefender 2013 generation of products.

Among the most harmful baits for kids are bogus game surveys leading to phishing attacks, cyberbullying, video-chatting with strangers, and links to pornography from innocent searches. As kids use social media at younger ages, children are exposed to online threats earlier.

The survey was conducted from February to June 2012, using the SurveyGizmo platform. The final sample consisted of 1,003 US security software users aged 16 or older.

The sample was drawn from members of The Sample Network’s online panel, and respondents were motivated by receiving points that could later be transformed in rewards.

The surveyed sample is representative for the US security software consumers.

Though most parents talk to their kids about online dangers, children seem to click onto the wrong kind of web sites, anyway. A US Bitdefender survey last year showed 55.7 percent of parents caught their children on inappropriate sites several times.

Also, more than a quarter of the 663 Americans interviewed are monitoring their sons’ or daughters’ social network account daily. The study was conducted between April and July 2011.