Facebook and the Parent-Teen Relationship

New research has shown something unexpected – as many as two thirds of American teenagers are comfortable enough with their parents to have them as their Facebook friends.

According to a survey, 16% of students aged between 16 and 18 years of age reported that having their parents as friends on the social networking site was a precondition for them to be part of the Facebook site in the first place. Only about 38% of the children said that they ignored friend requests from parents.

In the ever evolving parent–teen relationship, Facebook is something of a new frontier.

It is “a natural step in being connected for a generation that has grown up with the Internet,” says Kristen Campbell, of Kaplan Test Prep, where 2,313 students were questioned about their online social and networking activities

What is positive here is that a very significant majority of 65% kids are not hiding. What Facebook does is, it offers young people the option to be independent from their parents, to keep part of their lives private even from those parents who are otherwise active and involved.

Some parents and teens take the mutual decision of keeping their lives on Facebook separate from each other. On the other, some teens ignore parents’ friend requests; even though 82% of kids said that their parents were involved or very involved in their academic lives.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

4 − 2 =

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.