Mom vs Machine: The BlogHer-Parenting Magazine Research Study

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When it comes to online behaviors and technology use, what are Moms doing online? And what do they really think about what their kids are doing? Do they embrace or fear technology?  Are there generational gaps?  How do moms use their own tech knowledge and social media savvy to monitor their children’s behavior online?  The news is chock full of stories about cyber-bullying among young people, but is it really an everyday occurrence or still mercifully rare?

To download the pdf file for the full report click here.

In June 2010, BlogHer partnered with Parenting Magazine to help answer these questions. We collaborated on a survey and then that same survey was fielded on two separate populations:

• 568 digitally savvy moms aged 18-49 in the BlogHer Publishing Network
• 464 moms aged 18+ on the Parenting Mom Connection panel

While most of the results showed directional similarity between the two samples, and both sets of moms were highly active users of social media,  BlogHer moms proved substantially more active online than the Moms from the Parenting panel.  96% of the moms in the BlogHer sample said they engaged with online communities on a daily basis, compared to the still notable 63% from Parenting’s MomConnection panel.

When asked which types of online communities they would use to discuss parenting issues, both groups were right at home on Facebook. BlogHer moms proved to be “Super Communicators” (i.e. active on most other online platforms too), while MomConnection moms were also comfortable with Message Boards.

What kinds of issues are moms chatting up online?  Both groups have a high percentage of active discussions about kid’s behavioral issues, school issues and health/developmental issues.  78% of the BlogHer respondents to this question said they discussed Work-Family balance issues on their own blog, as did 46% of the MomConnection panel respondents when asked the same question.

Money is More Taboo than Sex!

Moms are significantly less likely to discuss issues about their marriage or partners online.  Only 21% of the BlogHer respondents to this question said they would discuss “Marriage and relationships” on Facebook (compared to only 11% for the MomConnection panel respondents). The numbers were just as low for talking about disagreements they had with partners over parenting issues.   Only 19% of the BlogHer respondents would cover this topic on Facebook, a bit more (31%) said they would discuss it on their own blog.  For the MomConnection respondents, only 12% would have parenting disagreements on Facebook, while 44% said they’d do it on a Message Board.

Money, however, is really the final frontier when it comes to online venting.  Nobody wants to talk about it online.  In fact, the topic is more taboo than sex/marriage/relationship issues!  Only 6% of both sets of respondents said they would discuss financial difficulties on Facebook.  That number jumped to a (still small) 27% among BlogHer respondents if the discussion was going to take place on their own blog.

Total Sample Responses: BlogHer and Parenting’s Mom Connection Combined

Merging the two samples allowed us to determine total online responses to some of the key issues in this study.  The following topic points are based on a total sample of 1032 mom respondents from both groups.

How Are Moms Monitoring their Kids Tech Usage?

Transparency and full disclosure lead the way when it comes to moms overseeing their kid’s tech behavior.  It’s more partnership than cloak and dagger. 98% said that they would friend or follow their child on a social network, while 97% said they would monitor with their child’s knowledge. Setting content limits (95%) and time limits (94%) were also common ways to monitor their children online, as were using parental controls on TV’s and browsers (85%) and consulting ratings for movies and/or videogames (89%).  Monitoring tech behavior without the child’s knowledge was less popular (60%).

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