Parental knowledge, monitoring, self-disclosure and teenagers’ risky Facebook behaviours in Singapore

Abstract

Amidst widespread social concerns about teenagers’ safety and well-being in a digital age, the present study employs parental knowledge theory to investigate whether acquiring more parental knowledge can help reduce teenagers’ engagement in a variety of risky behaviours on social network sites. Specifically, this study proposes to understand, which source of parental knowledge or what parenting strategy (parental monitoring including both control and solicitation techniques, or teenagers’ self-disclosure) is more effective in this parenting process, and on what circumstances teenagers will openly and willingly disclose to their parents on social network sites that are largely regarded as a private space reserved only for friends but not family members.

A survey was conducted in both paper-and-pencil and online formats among 170 dyads of teenage Facebook users, aged 13 to 18, and their parents in Singapore. The survey found parental knowledge as a valid theory within the context of social network sites in that the more parents knew about their teenagers’ activities and associations on Facebook, the less risky Facebook use (e.g. disclosing sensitive personal information, befriending online strangers, etc.) teenagers involved in, though such a relationship was not found in one specific risky Facebook behaviour, cyber bullying. Besides, while many teenager respondents claimed that their parents had most frequently employed parental solicitation strategy to regulate their Facebook use, both teenagers and their parents believed teenagers’ free and willing self-disclosure was also a significant contributor in obtaining parental knowledge. Further, teenagers’ self-disclosure, rather than parents’ active monitoring techniques, was identified as the only factor negatively correlated teenagers’ reduced risky Facebook use in this study. Good parent-teenager relationship, conversation-oriented family communication, and teenagers’ self-disclosure in real life were also found to positively correlate with teenagers’ self-disclosure on Facebook.