Who Needs Parental Controls? A Look at How Many Homes
Really Need Them
February 2009
Adam [email protected]
Senior Fellow Progress & Freedom Foundation
www.PFF.org
PFF paper
2 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
“Who Needs Parental Controls:
Assessing the Relevant Market for
Parental Control Technologies”
by Adam Thierer, Progress &
Freedom Foundation, Progress on
Point , No. 16.5, February 2009.
PFF book
3 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Parental Controls & Online
Child Protection: A Survey of
Tools and Methods
by Adam Thierer
www.pff.org/parentalcontrols
4
The Nature of the Problem
Many media and Internet critics say that government intervention (even censorship) may be necessary because parental control technologies are not widely utilized.
Q. But how many homes really need parental control technologies?
A: Fewer than you think!
The relevant universe of potential parental control users is actually quite limited.
Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Consider an analogy:
Baby locks for cabinets
Would we measure the effectiveness of
child cabinet locks by asking whether all
U.S. households used such safety measures
on kitchen and bathroom cabinets?
5 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Does every
household really
need these things?
Most homes don’t need baby locks1) have no children present in the home,
2) their children are of an age where such locks are not needed, or
3) they take other steps to protect their children from harmful products that might be in the home.
6 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Thus, any survey or study that evaluated
the success of child safety cabinet locks
by using all households as the relevant
universe of analysis would produce
highly skewed, inaccurate results.
This is exactly what happens in the
debate over parental controls today!
Critics are lumping all households together and assuming that because
some homes don’t use parental control tools, it means there is some sort of
market failure that requires regulation.
But not all homes need parental control tools!
7 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
So, how do we determine how many
homes might need parental controls?
Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?8
9 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Census Bureau (Statistical Abstract) data
Formula for Calculating the Percentage of
Household without Children
10
Nonfamily Households
+
Family Households without own Children
÷
Total Households
=
% of Households without Children
Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
11 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Making the Calculation
+
÷
Calculation for 2007
12
37,587 (Nonfamily Households)
+
41,668 (Family Households without own Children)
÷
116,011 (Total Households)
=
68.3% of Households without Children
Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?13
Historical Data on Homes With &
Without Kids
14
Households WITHOUT Kids in Them
Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
15 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Households WITH Kids in Them
Bottom line:
The percentage of homes that might need parental control technologies is certainly no greater than the 32% of U.S. households with children in them.
but…
16 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
The Actual Universe of Relevant
Homes is Even Smaller…
1. Not all age groups require parental controls
Little need for controls under or over certain ages
2. Some parents rely on other methods to control media & communications access
Household media rules
17 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Taxonomy of Household Media Rules
1) “Where” Rules
= assigning a place for media consumption
2) “When and How Much” Rules
= creating a media allowance
3) “Under What Condition” Rules
= carrot-and-stick incentives
4) “What” Rules
= specifying what kids can and cannot consume
19
0 - 7 years of age
Less Need for Parental Controls
16 - 18 years of age
Less Need for Parental Controls
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
7 - 16 years of age
Parental Controls
Potentially Needed
When are Parental Controls Needed?Ages 7 to 16 are Likely Years When
Parental Controls are Employed in Most Homes
Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Other reasons families might not use
parental control tools they have an aversion to parental control technologies,
perhaps fearing it creates distrust between them and their kids;
they don’t think parental control technologies work;
they believe their own household media rules and restrictions constitute a more sensible approach;
they feel comfortable making their own judgments after consulting ratings, program guides, and other information provided by media providers or third party media watchdog or rating organizations;
they just don’t allow many media or communications devices in the home;
or perhaps some of them are just lazy!
20 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
21
All U.S. Households
Households with Children
Households That Actually Utilize
Parental Controls
Who Needs Parental Controls?Far Less than 32% of U.S. Households Likely Need to Parental Controls
(32%)(?%)
Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
22 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Summary & Policy Implications
Summary Parental controls are now:
ubiquitously available,
increasingly easy to use,
increasingly free-of-charge.
There has never been a time in our nation’s history
when parents have had more tools and methods at their
disposal to help them decide what constitutes
acceptable media content in their homes and in the
lives of their children. Read my book for proof!
BUT… merely because parents have been empowered,
it does not mean they are all taking advantage of those
tools. It is impossible to determine definitively why that
may be the case.
23 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Policy Implications
(1) Not all homes have children or need
tools.
Regulation cannot be premised upon a lack of
parental control uptake among all U.S.
households.
Policymakers and the courts should be
skeptical of calls for regulation premised upon
faulty statistical analysis and an over-
estimation of the relevant universe of parental
control users.
24 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Policy Implications (cont.)
(2) Education and ease of use is important.
For those households in which children
are present but which are not using parental
control technologies, parents may need to
be better informed about the existence of
these tools and how to use them.
25 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
Policy Implications (cont.)
(3) Engaged parenting is the main
solution for many parents.
Many parents (including me!) believe that
education and parenting represent the first
and best approach to dealing with concerns
about objectionable content or troubling
communications.
Parental controls can be helpful in a “training
wheels” and “speed bumps” sense, but they
are no substitute for parental oversight and
mentoring.
26 Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
27
About PFF
www.PFF.org
Market-oriented think tank and educational non-profit with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status
We study the digital revolution and its implications for public policy
Founded in 1993
Based in Washington, D.C.
Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?
28
Further Reading
Parental Controls and Online Child Protection: A Survey of Tools and Methods, by Adam Thierer, Fall 2008.
FCC v. Fox and the Future of the First Amendment in the Information Age, by Adam Thierer, 1/20/09.
Don't Scapegoat Media, by Adam Thierer, 12/9/08.
The Perils of Mandatory Parental Controls and Restrictive Defaults, by Adam Thierer, 4/11/08.
Congress, Content Regulation, and Child Protection: The Expanding Legislative Agenda, by Adam Thierer, 2/6/08.
Parental Control Perfection? The Impact of the DVR and VOD Boom on the Debate over TV Content Regulation, by Adam Thierer, PFF Progress on Point 14.20, October 2007.
Why Regulate Broadcasting: Toward a Consistent First Amendment Standard for the Information Age, by Adam Thierer, 7/10/07.
Images Kids See on the Screen, Testimony by Adam Thierer, 6/22/07.
Adam Thierer – Who Needs Parental Controls?