The Household On-line Security Institute (FOSI) final week launched a landmark research inspecting how dad and mom and kids understand and handle on-line security. Regardless of the rising availability of parental controls throughout digital platforms, the analysis—based mostly on a nationally consultant survey of 1,000 dad and mom and 1,000 youngsters aged 10–17—discovered that simply round half of fogeys make the most of parental controls on tablets. That share drops for different units resembling smartphones, laptops, sensible TVs, and recreation consoles.
On the similar time, the research reveals a promising perception: 89% of kids say they really feel snug speaking to their dad and mom if one thing on-line makes them really feel unsafe, highlighting a significant alternative to deepen the type of open dialogue that’s important for cultivating a baby’s digital wellbeing.
“Our findings present that at the same time as parental controls turn out to be extra obtainable, adoption stays low,” mentioned Stephen Balkam, CEO and Founding father of FOSI. “This could immediate critical reflection throughout the tech trade and policymaking circles and reinforce efforts to make parental controls extra accessible and user-friendly. On the similar time, this analysis reveals that open communication stays one of the vital highly effective instruments dad and mom must assist their youngsters’s digital wellbeing.”
Key findings from the report:
- Parental controls are underutilized throughout every system examined. Adoption of parental controls varies broadly: 51% on tablets, 47% on smartphones, 46% on desktops, 43% on laptops, 38% on Sensible TVs, and 35% on online game consoles.
- Display time is inversely correlated with parental controls. Dad and mom who report decrease display time for his or her youngsters usually tend to have put in parental controls, whereas dad and mom who report greater display time for his or her youngsters are much less seemingly to make use of them.
- Social media is a prime concern. Posting on social media is the primary display time concern for each dad and mom and kids—however dad and mom are considerably extra apprehensive than youngsters.
- Gender influences parental guidelines. Dad and mom of boys usually tend to restrict online game play, whereas dad and mom of ladies usually tend to limit social media utilization.
- Youngsters fear essentially the most about on-line scams. Youngsters are extra involved about fraud and scams than dad and mom, who have a tendency to fret extra about predatory habits, inappropriate content material, misinformation, and extreme display time.
- Dad and mom underestimate their children’ on-line exercise. Youngsters reported partaking in a variety of on-line actions—together with watching movies, gaming, and social media use—at a lot greater charges than dad and mom perceived.
- Most kids really feel protected speaking to their dad and mom. 89% of children say they really feel snug turning to their dad and mom if one thing on-line makes them really feel unsafe.
The survey additionally explored consciousness and understanding of generative AI throughout two survey waves that had been performed six months aside:
- Recognizing AI is more durable than we expect. Within the first wave of this analysis, each dad and mom and kids struggled to differentiate between actual and AI-generated photographs. Solely 9% of respondents in each teams accurately recognized all three photographs as actual or faux. Round 43% received no less than two right—suggesting that digital literacy on this space stays a problem.
- Parental consciousness of children’ AI use is growing. Within the second wave of the survey, considerably extra dad and mom reported that their youngsters had been utilizing generative AI for duties like schoolwork and picture creation.
This analysis was performed by Ipsos, a number one unbiased analysis agency, in collaboration with the Household On-line Security Institute and a number of other FOSI member organizations together with TikTok and ESA Gaming.
The research surveyed 2,000 on-line respondents in the US, together with 1,000 dad and mom of kids ages 10 to 17 and 1,000 youngsters inside the similar age group. The ten-minute survey was fielded on-line between February and March 2025, with quotas in place to make sure a nationally consultant pattern based mostly on U.S. Census targets for age and gender. All statistical testing was performed at a 95% confidence degree to make sure the reliability of findings.
Downloadable Assets:
- Full White Paper: Entry the entire findings, information visualizations, and evaluation from FOSI’s 2025 On-line Security Survey.
- New Gadget Guidelines: A easy, family-friendly information, impressed by these analysis findings to assist dad and mom and caregivers arrange new units with security in thoughts.
