Parental paranoia in the social media era: By the numbers

Though teens are generally eager to escape their parents' watchful gaze, eluding Mom and Dad is becoming increasingly difficult in the digital era, no thanks to sites like Facebook. As part of an ongoing study, security firm AVG conducted a large national survey of 4,400 parents with teenagers 14 to 17 years old, and presented its findings on family life and the internet earlier this week. Here, a statistical look at how American parents are interacting with their children's digital lives:

72

Percentage of American parents who friend their kids on Facebook

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33

Percentage of French parents who friend their kids on Facebook

10

Percentage of Japanese parents who friend their kids on Facebook

80

Percentage of teens who apply filters on sites like Facebook so that their parents don't see all their information

61

Percentage of American parents who admit to having logged into their teenager's Facebook account without their child's permission

20

Percentage of parents who suspect their teens are obtaining porn or illegal music on the internet

20

Percentage of parents who believe their teens are "sexting" on their phones

7.5 million

Estimated number of underage users on Facebook

92

Percentage of U.S. parents who upload photos of their children to Facebook before the kids hit age 2

81

Percentage of U.S. children who have a digital footprint before age 2

34

Percentage of expectant mothers in the U.S. who post their sonograms online

25

Percentage of 14-year-olds who have had "sexually explicit or abusive" messages posted to their social media accounts by friends

40

Percentage of parents who worry that incriminating postings on social media will "affect their children's job prospects down the road"

Sources: Forbes, PC World, Technorati, WHPTV