Most Parents Show Little Concern About Children’s Media Use, Survey Says

Do parents worry about the growing amount of time their children spend with media? One new study suggests that most parents are largely unconcerned. And perhaps no wonder: Parents who show little concern about their children’s use of technology themselves spend big chunks of their leisure time with media.

The study, undertaken by the Center on Media and Human Development at Northwestern University, was intended to look at how parents view technology — from television to smartphones to tablets — and how family life revolves around these devices. The study’s co-author, Vicky Rideout, an independent researcher who over the last decade has done pioneering research into patterns of technology use, said she was surprised to find that 59 percent of the 2,300 parents surveyed were not worried that their children would become addicted to technology. About 38 percent did express such a worry. But Rideout said the lack of concern among the majority of parents surveyed did not conform with what appears to be a popular sentiment, found in the media and among some researchers.