What Do Parents Think About Age Restrictions on Access to Social Media?

In Slovenia, 83% of parents support restricting access to social media for children and adolescents under the age of 15, according to a survey of parents’ views on children joining social media platforms and on parental controls.

In Slovenia and other European Union countries, there has been intense debate for some time about introducing age restrictions on the use of social media. The results of a survey conducted by the Centre for Social Informatics (UL FDV), and Safe.si, the Slovenian awareness centre for safe internet use, show that 83% of parents or guardians agree or strongly agree with the proposal. Support is highest among parents of children aged up to five. It then declines slightly, but remains high even among parents of 13- to 17-year-olds, at 77%.

Parents and guardians generally view a state-imposed restriction as additional support in setting boundaries (69%) and as an appropriate way of protecting children (71%). At the same time, more than half (58%) believe they can effectively limit their children’s use of social media themselves, suggesting that they probably do not see government measures as a substitute for their own responsibility, but rather as additional support. Twenty-three percent of parents believe that such restrictions could have negative consequences for children, while 19% feel that the measure would place excessive limits on children’s online communication and participation. Parents’ views differ somewhat on whether social media platforms themselves can ensure children’s safety: 44% believe they can, while 37% believe they cannot.

Few Parents Use Parental Controls

Parents’ awareness of parental control options varies from platform to platform. Parental control features on YouTube are the best known, with 63% of parents aware of them, while those on TikTok and Snapchat are the least familiar, at 39%. Even fewer parents actually use these features to monitor or limit their children’s use of social media. Among parents who are aware of parental control options, only around one third use them on Instagram, while fewer than half do so on YouTube.

A link between the child’s age and the use of parental controls is evident only on YouTube, where these tools are used most frequently by parents of children aged 6 to 12, and less often by parents of teenagers aged 13 and over and of children aged up to five.

The parental control features on Google Play and the App Store that are most commonly used by parents are restrictions on in-app purchases and age-restriction settings for content (39%), followed by restrictions on app downloads (32%). Most parents (73%) who use these features rate them as fairly easy to use. Screen time management features are used by a good third of parents and guardians (35%), and among them, as many as 86% find them mostly or very useful.

When it comes to parental control tools on phones or devices used by children and teens, parents use tools or settings that are already built into the device (30%). Only 3% of parents use paid services.

Safe.si Tips for Parental Control

Parental control over phone use may seem like a good solution at first glance, but it has specific limitations that become apparent during adolescence. Teens know how to bypass parental controls if they want to. Until they start school, children should only use devices with internet access together with their parents. From ages 6 to 9, children should be allowed to use the internet independently, but only for schoolwork, while still using it with their parents for entertainment. Throughout this time, including during the teenage years, it’s important for parents to talk with their children about the types of content they encounter online and what’s going on in their lives. Through these conversations, they teach their children about online risks and prepare them for independent use, while also being able to detect in a timely manner if they have become a victim of cyberbullying or if something else harmful or unpleasant is happening to them online.

Photo: Igor Omilaev, Unsplash