It’s no secret that parents love talking about their youngsters to anyone who is willing to listen and it seems Facebook is the chosen social media platform in which they like to share regular updates about them.
Parenting on Female First
A recent study conducted by VoucherCodesPro.co.uk shows that as many as two thirds of British parents only post updates about their children and other parenting related topics.
The money saving website carried out a poll as part of its on-going investigation into the online habits of us Brits. A total of 2,204 parents from the UK with at least one child at ten years or younger took part in the poll and all of the participants confirmed that they are all active uses of Facebook.
67% of the parents who took part admitted that the only statuses they posted on Facebook were about their children or related topics.
When the participants were asked to list the parenting topics they most frequently posted or discussed with their friends on Facebook, these are the top 5 answers they gave:
1. 53% said they often boast about children’s milestones or achievements (developments, winning competitions, school awards etc)
2. 46% post ordinary updates surrounding typical everyday occurrences (what child ate for tea/toilet training/said a funny word etc)
3. 42% ask questions seeking support and words of advice from other parents on the site
4. 36% upload photographs or videos of kids to document the varying stages of childhood
5. 23% use parenting groups or notice boards in order to sell unwanted items and find cheap bargains
Marketing Director of VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, George Charles, said he is guilty of oversharing his children’s achievements on Facebook and commented: “Facebook is a clear favourite for Mums and Dads throughout the UK. Never before have we had such a public platform on which to boast about the joys and wonders of parenthood.”
For some people though it can be too much, 59% of parents involved in the poll admitted to deleting or blocking a Facebook friend who continuously updated their profile with posts about their children, despite many of them confessing that they did it themselves!
Participants were initially asked how often they posted status updates and photographs about their children on Facebook and more than half (56%) of parents admitted they did this on a weekly basis compared to 28% who claimed they did it on a monthly basis and 8% who said that they never shared statuses focusing on their children on Facebook.
When asked why they refrain from uploading any information about their children on Facebook, the majority (83%) confessed that it was for privacy or security reasons so that they could protect their little dears.
By Natasha Akpan - www.femalefirst.co.uk
Tagged in Parents children Social Media