In an era driven by screen time, internet safety for kids is becoming increasingly important, especially on a day like Safer Internet Day!

According to a Lingokids survey of over 600 U.S. families, 48.5% of parents feel they have a good level of knowledge regarding internet safety —but putting this knowledge into practice with our children is not always such an easy thing to do.

We hope that by sharing the data collected from our survey, we can all better understand the current situation of children’s internet safety and protect our little ones in their future internet use.

? Parental Control: Lingokids Survey

At Lingokids, internet safety for children is of utmost importance, which is why our app contains no ads. However, as a mobile app, we aim to learn more about how parents and children relate to mobile usage, from screen time to security.

To do so, we launched a survey of more than 600 families in the United States with children between the ages of 2 and 8. The results showed that most parents and caretakers are worried about and invested in making the Internet, electronic devices, and apps safer for their children.

Let’s take a look at some of the other key results of the survey:

How much do parents know about internet safety for kids?

We were happy to find that 48.5% of parents feel they have a good understanding of online safety for kids and put it into practice in their daily lives.

While 41.5% of participants admit to lacking knowledge on the topic, 9% recognize that they should worry more about it— data that reinforces our desire to offer parents more helpful content regarding kids’ online safety.

We’d also like to highlight that only 1% of parents surveyed said they don’t care about kids’ internet safety.

Information Sources – How do parents get informed about children’s internet safety?

Social media is the preferred information source for 47% of parents, while 42% consult specialized webpages, articles, and magazines.

The remaining 11% either do not actively search for this information or are not interested in the topic.

Device Safety?

Regarding device safety, the majority of the participants (61.7%) responded that their children use safe, child-friendly mobile devices.

On the other hand, we found a contrast between the 24.7% of participants who feel the need to install parental control applications on their devices in order to improve their child’s device safety, as compared to the 13.7% who believe their little ones are not at risk online.

Parents Discussing Internet Safety with their Kids?

68% of participants confirmed that they actively and regularly remind their children about the importance of internet safety, as well as what they should and should not do during their time online.

24% of parents said they sometimes have this discussion with their children, while 8% have not even considered it.

Kids Downloading Apps Freely?

We were also interested to know what level of freedom children have to download apps without supervision.

The results on this subject were clear, with 86% of parents saying their children must ask an adult for permission before downloading an app. Of those, 59.5% download the app together with an adult.

Only 6.7% of parents allow their kids to freely download apps .

But not all kids who use devices want to download apps: 7.3% are content with using the devices just for playing, without downloading new apps.

Kids and Online Gaming?

Online gaming is a common internet phenomenon that usually includes real-time competition with other users. But do young kids also play online?

38% play online games against friends and people they know , while 59% don’t play online, either because their favorite games don’t offer that option or they are not interested.

Kids and Overall Safety?

Finally, to conclude the study, we wanted to know how parents perceive their children’s knowledge of how to be safe on the Internet.

62.5% of respondents are confident in their children’s understanding of internet safety and exposure, as well as the information they receive about it at home and school, while 24.7% indicates the opposite.

Conclusions

• Less than half of parents (48.5%) believe they have the necessary knowledge about children’s safety online and put it into practice.
• With the rise of social media, 47% of parents use social networks to get informed about online safety.
• 62% make sure their little ones are using kids-safe content before handing them a phone or tablet to play with.
• A good 68.5% continuously help their children understand what they should and shouldn’t do online.
• 38% of parents acknowledged that their kids play online with friends, but 25% are not sure their kids know enough about online safety.
• Last but not least, 60% of parents said they get actively involved when their children download new apps.

As caring parents, guardians, and family members in this digital age, children’s online safety must be a top priority for us, and while many of us care, there are additional steps we can take to make our kids’ online experience even safer and more enjoyable!

Now, let’s start the conversation. What are your go-to tips for safe internet use for kids at home?