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What age should your parents stop taking your phone?

When you give a kid a device will determine how long a parent is going to be monitoring them, though not all parents agree on when they should give up control. As we showed in our previous survey coverage, parents tend to agree that they have to monitor kids up to about age 10.

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When it comes to keeping kids safe online, parents have a multitude of worries, though most are taking advantage of parental control software, which they find to be largely effective, according to the latest PCMag Tech Parenting survey. The biggest question facing most parents is, when should their kids get access to internet-connected devices? Age 10 appears to be the median age—the momentous year when 17% of parents and guardians are handing out a device. Ages 8 and 12 are also popular milestone ages; 11 and 9 are not—someone make something fun for 9-year-olds! From age 12 on, the numbers decline, but that’s likely because by that point kids have already cajoled most parents into handing over a permanent screen they can control. Control is the big issue. Giving a kid access to a device means opening them up to a vast world of information, entertainment, and community—along with a host of other concerns. When asked about their top fears of what could impact their online kids, parents’ lists are long and varied. Chief among them are online predators, exposure to inappropriate content, and tech addiction. The good thing is, a lot of those issues can be (somewhat) mitigated with parental control software, if used judiciously. Thankfully, a majority of parents in our survey currently use or have used the built-in parental controls on their children’s tech devices. The most used control is the ability to view what kids browse and what they’re doing. Does it work? Check the chart at the top—it turns out most survey takers find parental control features and apps to be somewhat to very effective. Built-in parental control features are far from the strongest tools out there. We review plenty of third-party parental control software that steps up the control options, and asked parents which brands they're most familiar with. Norton has a commanding lead over the rest—and that’s okay with us, as Norton Family is our current Editors’ Choice award winner. The reason we like it the most is that it encourages a dialog between kids and parents. It's not only for spying and blocking, but it does that, too. When you give a kid a device will determine how long a parent is going to be monitoring them, though not all parents agree on when they should give up control. As we showed in our previous survey coverage, parents tend to agree that they have to monitor kids up to about age 10. After that, the numbers start to climb as to when to turn off parental controls. The majority, 31%, say age 18 for sure. But there’s also 17% who say they’ll stop at age 16. There’s no blanket perfect age, however. In some homes, you can trust an 8-year-old; in others you may still want or need parental controls active for much longer. It all depends on the “kid.” For this story, we asked 1,079 US parents with kids under 18 who go online to take our PCMag Tech Parenting survey between May 20-23, 2022. For more from the PCMag Tech Parenting survey, read our previous coverage:

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How much is the Baby Shark kid worth?

The family behind viral hit 'Baby Shark' sitting on a $181m fortune.

smh.com.au - 'Baby Shark' made him a multimillionaire. Now he is looking ...

Parents who danced along with their children to the tune will tell you it’s no surprise that a song targeted at kids with a cute animated video was the first in history to cross 10 billion views on YouTube. They know the magnetic pull “Baby Shark” exerts on their young ones. It’s that allure that Pinkfong is hoping to capitalise on even more. The company is now developing a movie of its famous shark with Nickelodeon Animation and is exploring ways to use non-fungible tokens after its first NFT collection of “Baby Shark” was sold out in 30 minutes in December. It’s also planning to start digital comics and launch products for the older fans who grew up obsessing over the tune. “Our competitiveness lies both in content and technology,” Kim Min-seok, who co-founded Pinkfong, said in a video interview from Seoul. “We’re interested in products and businesses that create synergy between the two.”