Kiwi mums secretly access kids\' Facebook

Half of latest Zealand mothers have accessed their children's Facebook page without their consent, in line with a world report.

The AVG Digital Coming of Age study surveyed 4,400 parents of 14 to 17-year-old children in 11 countries, including New Zealand, between January 15 and February 1 this year.

The study found 44 per cent of Kiwi respondents had accessed their child's Facebook profile without their consent.

Spanish and American parents were the least trusting, with 61 per cent of oldsters accessing their teen's Facebook, while on the other end of the spectrum only 9 per cent of Japanese respondents admitted to accessing their teen's profile without consent.

Greater than half (60 per cent) of Kiwi respondents are "friends" with their children at the social media website, in comparison to 72 per cent within the US, 66 per cent in Canada and Italy, 64 per cent in Spain, 57 per cent in Australia, 51 per cent within the UK and Germany, 50 per cent in Czech Republic, 32 per cent in France, and 10 per cent in Japan.

The study found a couple of third (37 per cent) of fogeys fear their teen's interactions online could affect their future job prospects, and 26 per cent surveyed said they'd seen explicit or abusive messages on their teen's social networking profile, in comparison to a fifth folks and UK parents.

Nearly one fifth of Kiwi parents suspect their teen of accessing porn. Globally, 26 per cent suspected their teenage son was accessing pornography, while only 12 per cent suspected their daughter of doing the similar.

Only 17 per cent of recent Zealand parents suspected their teen of carrying out "sexting" or sending sexual text messages, in comparison with 23 per cent of UK parents surveyed.

While 45 per cent of Spanish parents suspected their children of illegally downloading music, only 27 per cent of Kiwi parents thought their children were.

Nearly 1 / 4 of recent Zealand parents though schools weren't doing enough to coach teenagers about using the web responsibly, while 47 per cent were satisfied schools were doing enough.

By Paul Harper | Email Paul