Nearly two-thirds (62%) of mothers surveyed were just as concerned about cyber dangers as they were about drunk driving or drug experimentation. While 44 percent worry about their children's online safety, almost a quarter worry about that more than what they might be doing outside the house.
They have good reason to worry. While 72 percent of mothers had a verbal agreement with their teens about what is allowed online, nearly half (48 percent) admitted not knowing all the time what goes on. Kids take advantage of that, McAfee says, and many are "spinning a web of evasive operations to avoid their parents' supervision.
Almost two-thirds (63%) of teens said they know how to hide what they do online from their parents; 43 percent have closed or minimized the browser when they heard their parents coming. Nearly a third (32%) have cleared their browser history, 16 percent have created secret email accounts or social networking profiles, and 11 percent have figured out how to unlock or disable parental or filtering controls.
Even after all the media coverage of the dangers teens face online, 52 percent admitted to giving out personal information online to someone they didn't know, and 24 percent have given personal photos and/or physical descriptions of themselves. Teen girls are twice as likely to do so than boys (34% compared to 15%).
Giving out too much personal information is the primary worry of 58 percent of mothers, while 44 percent worry about what their teens do when using the internet in their rooms alone, and 24 percent worry about their internet use when parents are out of the house.
"As a father of three I certainly worry about what my kids may do and encounter online," said Dave DeWalt, McAfee president and chief executive officer. "While progress has been made over the past decade to combat online dangers, they remain very real for our kids."
Some mothers have taken to covert actions to monitor their children. About a quarter (26%) have befriended their child on a social network, and 59 percent have checked their kid's browser history after they've finished using the Internet. Only 15 percent are using monitoring software.
Many of the teens surveyed (24%) said they'd be shocked to find out their parents were spying on them, one in five would be hurt to find that out, and 34 percent said they'd be offended by it.
To bolster online safety and help educate parents, McAfee has appointed Chicago mom Tracy Mooney as its first Chief Cyber Security Mom.
"There are times I've felt overwhelmed trying to keep up with all the new things my kids are doing online," said Mooney. "There's a lot of information out there, parents just need to know where to go to find it. Kids will always want to break the rules and stretch boundaries and you have to give them their space and privacy. What works for me is acting before it happens and teaching them how to behave responsibly and safely online, as you would teach them to behave in the real world." Jason Lee Miller
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