Survey: Parental concerns about children’s phone use increased significantly in a year – rapid increase in certain services as a result

The worry of Finnish parents about their children's phone use is now higher than ever in this decade, says the 2024 School Survey of over 1,000 respondents by DNA. The most common concerns are the addictiveness of digital device content, the ‘grooming phenomenon’ and the various security threats.

As much as half of parents of children aged 5–12 are concerned about their child’s phone use, which is 10 percentage points more than in the study a year ago. Among parents of children aged 13–16, the corresponding figure is 42 percent, or 9 percentage points more than previously.

In the opinion of most parents, digital content is too addictive for children. Almost three in four (73%) parents of primary school-age children and almost seven in ten (68%) parents of secondary school-age children feel this way. Approximately 3 in 5 parents of children in both age groups are also concerned about the grooming phenomenon, i.e. an unknown person approaching the child online to attract them for sexual purposes.

“The amount of data used is practically constantly increasing, meaning that the world that opens up on the phone is always expanding, both for good and for bad.  In contrast to the entertaining and educational digital content, children are exposed to more and more skilled scam attempts. While it may be easier for adults to identify and prepare for risks, children's digital literacy cannot be expected to be as advanced. In this sense, parents must be awake, and worrying is positive,” says Sami Aavikko, CEO of DNA Store.

“In recent years, there has been a lot of debate over the addictiveness of using smart devices. It is really important that children and young people also spend time without smart devices. More than half of parents of children and young people in secondary school say their families spend time together without smart devices, while 70% of parents of 5–12 year-olds say this is the case. As much as 45 percent of children and youth have also wanted to limit their time on the phone themselves. The figure has clearly increased since last year,” continues Aavikko.

A good response to the concern

The survey shows that the increased parental concern has led to action. The phone or subscription features that have increased the most over the year for children aged 5–12 are the service that supports secure use of social media (now 39%, up 11 percentage points from a year ago), the balance limit (now 29%, up 9 percentage points from a year ago), the data leakage alert (now 22%, up 9 percentage points from a year ago), and insurance against identity theft or online crime (now 21%, up 8 percentage points from a year ago).

“When asked which features are enabled on a child’s current phone, watch phone or subscription, the unlimited mobile data included in the monthly price is the most popular feature. At the same time, the answers show that threats are also addressed by improving the security of the child’s phone. Outgoing call barring to paid numbers is the second most commonly used feature, and allowing or blocking certain applications is the fourth most common. Both are used in around two-thirds of the phones used by children in the youngest age group. This shows that parental vigilance to ensure the security of their primary school-age children’s phones is going in the right direction,” says Aavikko.

Scam call detection and blocking the next trend

The main risks perceived by parents of younger children (62%) are harmful contacts, and websites related to sex, violence and intoxicants, for example – only the loss of the phone (63%) is perceived as a higher risk. Parents of secondary school-age children, on the other hand, cite the download of an app, attachment or link that delivers a virus or other malware to the child’s device as the second biggest risk. According to parents, only the loss of sleep quality caused by using the phone, or health problems such as back or neck problems, are a higher risk.

It is the means to combat these threats that are the services of most interest to parents, but which are not yet in use in their families. 34 percent of parents of 5–12 year-olds and 38 percent of parents of 13–16 year-olds are interested in using a service that detects and warns the user of a scam call. For younger children, the next most interesting service (31%) is a service to block scam calls or messages, and for older children, a service to monitor personal data for leaks (37%).

“The survey results suggest that these features are a growing trend this year. By next year, the intention may have already turned into action. And no wonder, since scam calls and messages are the blight of our time, and a lot has already been done to combat them. In recognition of this, DNA, like other operators, was one of the recipients of  Traficom’s Information Security Trailblazer award  in March. Thanks to the measures we have developed and implemented in cooperation with other parties, people are longer be exposed to a large number of scam calls made using fake Finnish numbers. However, it is advisable to use services that block scam calls and messages because fraudulent calls and messages can also come from foreign numbers,” says Aavikko.

Media enquiries:

CEO Sami Aavikko, DNA Store Ltd, tel. +358 44 044 3069, sami.aavikko@dna.fi  

DNA Corporate Communications, tel. +358 44 044 8000, communications@dna.fi