Kiwi children want their parents to put down mobile phones and pay them more attention, according to a new survey.
About a third of 8 to 13-year-olds surveyed said their parents spent equal or less time with them than on their mobile devices.
The global research, conducted by AVG Technologies, surveyed 340 Kiwi adults and 304 children and found what researchers considered to be a worrying trend.
More than 50 percent of Kiwi children questioned felt their parents checked their devices too often.
The children's biggest grievance – when presented with a list of bad device habits – was their parents being distracted by their phone or tablet during a conversation.
About 40 percent said this habit made them feel unimportant.
Half of all Kiwi parents surveyed agreed their mobile device use was too frequent, and many worried about how it looked from their children's viewpoint.
The Parenting Place spokesman John Cowen says the survey fits with recent research showing teenagers have similar habits to their parents when it comes to the amount of time they spend using technology each day.
Teenagers sometimes think their parents are "hypocrites" for telling them to get off their phones while sitting watching something like Game of Thrones, he says.
Spending time on mobile phones or tablets does not need to interfere with family life, as long as rules are followed by parents and children about when they could be used.
"Making a priority to [pay attention] the people that are in your face, not in your phone," he says.
He suggests no phones at the dinner table, or putting all the family's phones on chargers in the kitchen at a certain time of night so teens don't use them in bed and thereby lose out on sleep.
"These things will only work if parents model them."
He says he is surprised half of parents surveyed agreed their device use was too frequent, but says this recognition meant families are "halfway home" to changing their habits.
Overall, the survey results are not concerning, he says.
Other global research, such as a 2007 US study, showed many parents were not bothered by their children using technology, he says.
AVG security awareness director Michael McKinnon says as children pick up mobile devices at an increasingly younger age, it is important for parents to set good habits within the home early on.
"Children take their cues from us for everything else, so it is only natural that they should do the same with device use.
"It can be hard to step away from your device at home, but with a third of parents telling us that they wished their child used their device less (32 percent) they need to lead by example and consider how their behaviour might be making their child feel."
In the global survey results, Brazilian parents topped the survey for device use, with 87 percent of children stating their parents used mobile devices too much.
Almost 60 percent of Brazilian parents admitted using their phone while driving.
Fifty-six percent of children in Brazil also said they would confiscate a parent’s device if they could, compared to 45 percent in New Zealand.
3 News
source: newshub archive
