Two-thirds of parents say they are uncomfortable with their children participating in online communities, and about half of them say online communities, and about half of them say online predators are a threat, according to a new study from the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication.

The upside for most parents - 80% - is that they consider the Internet a valuable source of information and more important than television, radio, newspaper and books, according to the study. That figure is up from 66% in 2006.

Other findings include: a quarter of parents said their kids spend too much time online, a percentage that’s risen for three years in a row. And 13% of parents said their children are spending less time with friends as a result of the Internet, another figure that grew for the consecutive year.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Computers, Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.