Over half of parents cyber-snoop on their kids

Research from Bullguard has found that over half of the UK’s parents monitor their children’s online activity.

The study found that, of the 2,000 respondents, 55 per cent monitor their children’s activity by checking their social networking profile with 40 per cent admitting to doing so on a regular basis, while a further five per cent “would if they knew how”.

Of those who snoop, 39 per cent use the Facebook Wall to check who their children are associating with, with 11 per cent admitting that the only reason they created an account was to monitor their kids.

“It certainly seems as though parents are taking advantage of the trail of information left by web use in order to check up on their kids,” said Bullguard’s security specialist, Claus Villumsen.

“These figures are initially quite surprising, but since certain malicious third parties have been known to prey on unsuspecting or over trusting individuals online, it does seem as though many could have legitimate concerns.”