41% of Aussie parents check on teens via Facebook:

The Digital Coming of Age study by security software company, AVG examined the views of 4,400 parents with 14-17 year olds in 11 countries, including Australia and New Zealand.

It found that more than a third of parents were concerned that their teen’s interaction with social media sites could affect their future job prospects. Spanish parents (65 per cent) were the most concerned, while parents in the Czech Republic (29 per cent) were the least worried, compared with Italy (57 per cent), Germany (47 per cent), France (45 per cent), Australia (42 per cent), US (40 per cent), Canada (38 per cent), New Zealand (37 per cent), Japan (33 per cent) and the UK (30 per cent).

Michael McKinnon, Security Advisor at AVG said, “AVG’s latest research encourages us to consider whether Facebook and other social networking sites are creating a new kind of parental relationship, or whether we are in effect spying on our teens? These sites are providing parents with new methods to monitor what their kids are doing without necessarily having to be ‘heavy handed’ or to quiz their child directly.”

Digital Coming of Age also unearths that nearly half of all parents surveyed globally felt that schools were effective in teaching their teens to use the internet responsibly. UK parents have the most faith in the teaching ability of schools (59 per cent), while the Czech Republic had the lowest (31 per cent), compared with Spain (54 per cent), Australia (53 per cent), United States (49 per cent), New Zealand (47 per cent), Germany (44 per cent), Canada (43 per cent), France (43 per cent) and Italy (35 per cent).

Will Gardner, CEO, ChildNet International, commented: "We know from our work in schools that children and young people are using a wide range of devices to surf the net and we also hear from many parents who are confused about how their children are getting online and what they are doing online."

"One of our key messages is to encourage parents to talk with their children and young people about what they're doing online, who they're talking to and to find out whether they have any safety concerns. It's great when families can connect online, but offline conversations are also a key part of staying safe online."

Do you or will you check on your teen via Facebook?