“iParents” – Parenting By Phone

According to the Retrevo Gadgetology Report, today’s parents have a whole new world of social tools to consider when it comes to raising their children. Leading the way in most digital activities are iPhone owning parents, or “iParents,” coined by the report.

When compared with the general parent population, iPhone owning parents are more likely to be social on Facebook than the average parent. The study found that 13% of iPhone owning parents had more than 500 Facebook friends as opposed to only 8% of all parents who had more than 500 Facebook friends. Conversely, only 5% of iPhone owners were likely to have a small amount of Facebook friends, as opposed to 20% of all parents.

Parents have always wanted to know who their kids are hanging out with, says the report. By the time children are teenagers, 47% of parents say they’ve used Facebook to learn about their kid’s friends. The study also found that parents use Facebook to learn more about other parents, with 34% of parents admit to using Facebook to check on their kid’s friend’s parents when their children are between ages 13 and 19 years old.

Once kids reach age 20 and become more independent, only 18% of parents maintain interest in learning more about their kids’ friends through Facebook.

When it comes to dating, and depending on how their kids have adjusted their privacy settings, parents can track their location, social updates, pictures and even videos of their kids at all times.

The study found that:

• 12% of parents actually use Facebook to learn more about their kid’s dates
• 20% of iPhone owning parents are almost twice as likely to use Facebook to learn more about who their kids date than the average parent
• 13% of dads are more likely to use Facebok to learn more about their kid’s dates as opposed to only 10% of moms

The study found that 12% of all parents felt like they couldn’t stop using Facebook or Twitter even if they wanted to. This number increases to 19% when looking at iPhone owning parents.

Most parents exhibit normal social media usage patterns, but 11% of them said they’ve given up activities they used to enjoy because they spend time on Facebook or Twitter. 18% of iPhone owning parents feel the same way, compared to only 12% of Droid owning parents. And, iPhone owning parents are twice as likely to get nervous or anxious if they don’t check Facebook/Twitter (28%).

Gadgets and social media are becoming an increasing presence in parent’s lives, for better or worse, with “iDevices” largely leading the way, concludes the report.

Read the full article here.