Parents worry about children falling for online scams but fail to monitor usage

A new study of over 1,000 US parents with children at home between the ages of two and 20 finds that 35 percent of families have experienced a phishing scam via text, email or chat, and 25 percent have had a game or social media account hacked.

The report from Bitwarden finds that children as young as three to five are already using the internet, and 42 percent of parents in this age group say their child has unintentionally shared personal information. Nearly 80 percent of kids ages three to 12 have their own tablet, making device access nearly universal by early elementary school.

However, while parents are aware of the risks of their child being online, and many admit their kids have already experienced phishing and malware, made unauthorized purchases, or accidentally shared data, consistent action to guard against the threats is lagging.

Gen Z parents have the highest concerns (80 percent) about their kids falling victim to AI scams, and 98 percent syd they have had conversations with their kids about online safety. However, they remain the least likely to monitor online activity. 37 percent say they give their child full autonomy or only lightly monitor device use.

This lack of oversight correlates with increased incident rates for children and families. Gen Z households report the highest levels of malware (44 percent), unauthorized in-app purchases (41 percent), phishing (40 percent), and/or unintentional data sharing (36 percent).

While concern for children's safety online is at the forefront of conversations, parents' own
security practices often fall short and can have bigger repercussions. Of those surveyed,
28 percent of Gen Z parents admit to sharing passwords verbally or through text or email.

Just 50 percent say they use monitoring software or parental controls and only about four in 10 families report using antivirus tools or keeping software up to date. Fewer than half (42 percent) use a password manager and only 24 percent of families use a secure browsing tool or VPN.

With the rise of AI parents worry that scams are becoming harder to detect. 78 percent of parents across all households are concerned about their child falling victim to an AI-enhanced scam, yet nearly half (43 percent) haven’t talked with their offspring about how to spot one.

You can read more on the Bitwarden site. Do you monitor your children’s online activity? How concerned are you about the threats? Lets us know in the comments.

Image credit: Anna Om/Dreamstime.com