Parents Talk Online Safety

• 11/03/2025
• Background

Over the last six months, More in Common’s researchers have surveyed almost 10,000 parents with children aged under 18 across the UK, US, Poland, France and the Netherlands to understand how they navigate the challenge of keeping their children safe online.

Key findings 

• Around nine in ten parents across countries are concerned about children’s online safety. For many parents that concern is particularly severe. Two thirds of British and American parents are very concerned, and half of French, Polish and Dutch parents are very concerned about children’s online safety
• Concern about online safety spans the political spectrum. Across countries, voters who vote for or identify with different political parties are united in their concern about online safety. In the UK and US, there are some of the smallest levels of partisan difference in concern about online safety.
• More than one in three parents often find themselves in conflict with their children over setting digital limits, and a similar proportion find it difficult to limit their children's screen time. A finding that was consistent with focus group research across countries.
• Across countries, most parents think that politicians and tech companies aren’t taking children’s online safety seriously enough. In Europe, more than three in five parents hold this view for both politicians and tech companies, while over half of American parents hold the same view.
• There is a political opportunity for tougher safeguards on children's online safety - over half of parents across would look more positively on a political party committing to increase online safety protections. In the United States, that even extends to a majority of both Harris and Trump voters saying they would think more positively about the other party if they announced increased online safety protections.
• There is strong support from parents for new laws and measures from tech companies to make being online safer for children - action on algorithms, better age verification on social media and new measures to detect and remove explicit images of children command strong support among parents.
• Most parents prioritize online safety safeguards ahead of privacy or free speech considerations - more than two thirds of parents in all countries are more likely to prioritise protecting children from harmful content online than protecting free speech online, while more than half the parents in all the countries surveyed prioritise limiting privacy rights in order to protect children from harm online - however, there are more concerns about privacy implications than free speech implications.
• Parents-first rather than parents only: Parents feel a strong sense of responsibility for keeping their own children safe online, but they also have high expectations for other actors such as governments and social media companies.

A summary of the country reports can be found in the background section.