Yet despite enthusiasm for coding, parents are still deeply ambivalent about the children’s relationship with technology
Almost half of British parents believe that it is more important for their children to learn coding than learn a foreign language, while a third say that it is more important than English Literature.
This is according to research carried out by Censuswide, which polled 1,012 UK adults and 1,003 parents with children aged five to 18 in October and November 2016, on behalf of digital learning and certification provider OpenClassrooms. The study found that despite this enthusiasm for coding, parents are still deeply ambivalent about the children’s relationship with technology, worrying “constantly” about tech’s influence on their kids.
Yet parents, including the 44% that think coding is more important than learning languages, also deplored the negative influence that they perceive technology has on their children. A total of nine in 10 parents (90%) are concerned about the safety of their children online, while a third (33%) said they are “always worried”. Meanwhile, almost half (43%) said that their children spend more time on their devices than with their parents.
In spite of their worries about the dangers of the internet, only a quarter (27%) of parents say they are worried about the amount of time that their children spend online.
The research also explored the impact that the rise of technology will have on future employment. Technologies such as automation and robotics were a major concern. This is the second most important concern for parents after climate change worries (54% versus 63%).
While parents believe in the importance of learning tech skills such as coding, just under half of respondents (43%) say that their children get a “great” digital education at school. Despite this, only one in 10 say that they have actively taken up the issue with teachers, and pushed school staff on the importance of digital skills.
Meanwhile, only a third (34%) have pushed their progeny to learn technology skills , although the same proportion (32%) say that their children already teach themselves skills such as coding and website building.
Yet parents seem to underestimate their kids’ digital proficiency, with only a quarter (27%) saying that they turn to their children for technology advice. However, of those parents that do ask for advice, there is a big jump once the children reach the eight to 10 age range, demonstrating how early children start exceeding their parents’ digital knowledge.
Lorraine Thomas, founder of The Parent Coaching Academy, said that the findings show that parents need to engage more closely with their children about technology if they are to help shape their future and keep them safe.
“Parents want to protect their children and make sure they are developing and learning the skills that will help them succeed in the future,” said Thomas. “This can only happen if parents step into their children’s online world and inhabit it with them. Most of the parents I work with find their teenager’s digital world scary and unfamiliar. They don’t understand what their teenagers are doing when they are on their devices. They don’t know how to handle their teenager’s relationship with technology, and because this is such a big part of their son or daughter’s life, it can create many challenges in family relationships.
“As parents, it is essential to create a strong, positive family ethos when it comes to technology,” continued Thomas. “We need to be talking regularly to our children about the opportunities and risks that technology has brought into our lives. That’s why we have developed ‘Crack The Code’ with OpenClassrooms. It’s a short, free online course that gives busy parents lots of practical tips that will help them understand their teenager’s digital world. It will help them talk so that their teenagers listen and listen so that their teenagers talk.”
