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The Associated Press

More than 50 per cent of the Canadian parents surveyed for a study on online safety admitted they secretly access their teenager's Facebook account.

According to a survey conducted in 11 countries by security company AVG, the global average of snooping parents was 44 per cent.

Still, Canadian parents were less likely to spy on their teens than those in the U.S. and Spain, where 61 per cent admitted to monitoring Facebook covertly.

When accounting for the results from all countries, mothers were more likely than fathers to do the cyberstalking.

About 49 per cent of moms admitted to doing so, compared to 39 per cent of dads.

Canadian parents were second most likely to be Facebook friends with their teens. About 66 per cent said their kids had accepted their friend request, compared to 72 per cent in the U.S. and just 32 per cent in France and 10 per cent in Japan.

When it came to worries about online behaviour, about 38 per cent of Canadian parents said they worried their teen's actions on social networks could affect their future job, school or dating prospects, compared to 40 per cent in the U.S. and 42 per cent globally.

About 18 per cent of Canadian parents suspected their teen was accessing pornography, six per cent thought they were gambling online, and 25 per cent believed their were downloading music illegally, which were all slightly below the global averages.

About 43 per cent of the parents in Canada said they were satisfied with how schools were teaching their teens to responsibly use the Internet, compared to a high of 59 per cent in the U.K. and a low of 31 per cent in the Czech Republic.



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