Real-live parental controls: Study

More than half (54%) of US households with 12-to-17-year-olds in them filter Internet access - a 65% increase over 2000, according to a Pew Internet & American Life study released today. Even so, "big majorities of both teens [64%] and parents [65%] believe that teens do things on the Internet that their parents would not approve of," Pew adds. The challenge is that a centrally located, filtered family PC is becoming a thing of the past in the US (see the recent Kaiser study on media in the lives of US teens). Children are increasingly accessing the Net via laptops, mobile phones, and fixed and mobile game consoles (e.g., the new PlayStation Portable, or PSP), not to mention other locations beyond parental control (friends' houses, school, libraries, coffee shops, etc.). Amanda Lenhart, the study's author, said that kids who have Internet rules at home "are also more likely to access the Internet from school, possibly negating the impact of any rules," CBS News reports. Here are some more key Pew findings:

* 87% of US 12-to-17-year-olds have access to the Net at home.
* 13% of teens don't use the Net; 47% of these say they did at one time but stopped, and 10% of non-online teens say they aren't online because of a bad experience they had online, parental restrictions, or they don't feel safe online.
* 67% of parents believe the Internet is "a good thing for their child," up from 55% in 2000 (a 53% increase); 5% believe the Net is "a bad thing" for their child.
* 65% of parents and 64% of teens say that "teens do things online that they wouldn't want their parents to know about."
* 81% of parents of online teens say teens aren't careful enough when giving out information personal info online, and 79% of online teens agree.
* 73% of teens say the connected computer is in a public place in the house.
* 64% of parents say they've set rules about teens' online activities.
* 62% of parents say they check on teen's Net activity after they've been online, but only 33% of teens say they believe their parents monitor their activity.

Here's coverage by the Associated Press and MSNBC.