Parents wary of children using TikTok and other social media unsupervised: Poll

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EXCLUSIVE — Two-thirds of parents are leery of allowing their children to use TikTok and other social media apps without supervision, a newly released poll has found.

The poll, commissioned by the parent activist group Parents Defending Education and conducted by WPA Intelligence, found that 68% of parents reported feeling uncomfortable with the idea of allowing their children to use TikTok without supervision.

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The results held across the political spectrum, with 71% of Republicans, 72% of independents, and 63% of Democrats expressing the sentiment. Additionally, 68% of parents indicated that they were aware of the Chinese government’s ability to access user data on the popular app.

The outcomes were similar for other social media apps, with 63% of parents expressing concerns about unsupervised use of Instagram and Facebook, 74% uncomfortable with unsupervised use of Snapchat, and 66% were uncomfortable with their children using Twitter without supervision.

But while parents were generally concerned about their children using most social media apps unsupervised, they had a much more permissive attitude toward YouTube, with 68% of parents saying they felt comfortable with their children using the video website without supervision.

Overall, 67% of parents, including 74% of independents, 75% of Republicans, and 55% of Democrats, indicated that they felt that social media had a negative impact on their child.

In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Matt Knee, the vice president and director of analytics at WPA Intelligence, said that the survey “shows that parents are rightfully alarmed about the influence of Big Tech on their kids and their privacy and want something done about it.”

“There is a real opportunity for elected officials to lead here and enact real and highly popular solutions for holding Big Tech accountable,” Knee said.

The survey also found plenty of support for requiring schools to obtain parental consent before administering surveys to students, many of which are provided to third-party contractors and ask questions about student gender identity, sexual orientation, sexual activity, drug and alcohol use, and parental political affiliation.

By a wide 77%-17% margin, parents expressed support for requiring schools to obtain parental permission before administering such surveys.

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“Parents went from hearing all the time about how important it was to limit screen time for their children to seeing their kids plugged into devices all day at school,” Parents Defending Education’s Director of Outreach Erika Sanzi told the Washington Examiner. “Add on the intrusive surveys being sent to students’ email addresses to collect data without their parents’ knowledge or consent and is it any surprise parents are concerned? This isn’t a political thing, it’s a parent thing; these numbers bear that out.”

The survey was done between Aug. 23 and Aug. 29 with a sample size of 822 people, and the margin of error was 3.5 percentage points.

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