Researchers Find Parents are Hypocrites Over Social Media Use

When it comes to practising what you preach to your children about using social media, are you virtuous or are you a big fat hypocrite?

According to new research, it’s quite likely you’re the latter.

Dr Judith Ramsay, a researcher from Manchester Metropolitan University, has found that parents have a “do as I say, not as I do” attitude when it comes to using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms.

The researchers found that two thirds of parents think social media use is bad for their kids, but they themselves use it extensively.

In a poll of parents with children aged five and over, researchers examined how much time they spend using technology, watching television, listening to music and participating in social network, as well as their motivations and preferences for using technology.

Parents were also asked about their child’s technology usage and how it impacts their relationship with their child.

The researchers found that parents engage in a range of activities including watching TV, gaming, using mobile phones and social media, and reported their children engage in similar activities.

They found that there was a close relationship between how much parents read, watched television, used social networking sites and played video games and how much their children did too.

However, two-thirds of parents believed that social media use was harmful for their children.

Judith Ramsay said: “Our findings suggest parents are worried about their children’s use of technology, which makes it interesting that their own use of it is has so much influence on their children.

“We need to raise parental awareness of the strong effect they have and this influence must also be taken into account by professionals developing policies that promote safe use of the internet for children.”