While some still fear a coming zombie apocalypse, a new poll shows most parents think it’s already hitting close to home: That is, seven in ten say they fear their kids are becoming “internet zombies.”
The poll of 2,000 American parents, commissioned by the online safety analysts at Lightspeed Systems, also reveals 64% are concerned about how much time per day their child spends online. And while 71% said they trust their kid to surf the internet unsupervised, 25% of those believe a youngster should be in their teens before they can do so.
Sixty-eight percent believe their child will see something inappropriate online if they’re not supervising them, and 71% say they think that can happen while their kid is at school or researching homework.
Thirty-nine percent of parents polled say they worry their young ones will “accidentally” access stuff that’s inappropriate, and 43% fear a stranger reaching out to them while they’re online. To that end, 40% of respondents say they’ve either set parental controls on their child’s internet access, or they ask to see what their kid has been doing.
In that vein, 38% said they conduct random checks on their children’s browser history, and 37% have their kid turn in their internet accessible devices at bedtime.
That said, parents in the poll believe their kids aren’t always honest: 49% say they’ve caught their kids on social media when they were supposed to be doing homework, and 63% say their kids use “school research” as an excuse to get back online.
Survey questions, methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.