Cox’s insightful study: examined children’s interaction with mobile devices

A new study published by Cox Communications found that there is a correlation between sharing location on apps and children and teenagers communicating with strangers online.

More than half of parents surveyed said their children had location sharing turned on on their phones, making it easier to track them.

Susan Anable, vice president of Cox Communications in Phoenix, joined “Arizona Horizon” to share more about what parents can do to protect their children from turning off location sharing in favor of teaching digital skills.

“We have a responsibility to ensure that the people we interact with are knowledgeable, informed and able to make good choices,” Anable said. “So in asking these parents, we said what do you know about how your children use the Internet and we found some pretty disturbing information, and then we also found some promising information.”

According to Anable, 56% of parents said their children used location-sharing services on publicly available apps, and 31% of them said a stranger had contacted their children on a cell phone.

While this percentage seems concerning, Anable says parents are more engaged and engaged with what their children are doing on their phones.

“Every technological advance comes from children who hide it from their parents. That’s why parents need to be on top of it, and good communication and trust are the key to making sure that you can have conversations with your children and that they don’t hide it,” Anable said.
Anable says Cox Communications has a digital academy that provides free tools to people who may not be very comfortable with technology.