Univ. of Iowa researcher looks into how parents monitor childrens social media use [Video]

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – A new study from the University of Iowa is shedding light on how parents choose to monitor their child’s social media use.

“We were really curious to know why parents might end up at that place of not monitoring or limiting media for kids,” said Dr. Rachel Young.

As the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication Associate Professor and a parent to two teenagers herself, she knows just how important the balance can be when it comes to monitoring media use.

Researchers started with a focus group made up of local parents and their children. Based on those local findings, they did a national survey to ask parents about the barriers they encounter when monitoring or limiting social media use.

“For some parents they really would have liked to do more monitoring or limiting, but what they had tried, they encountered a …