Poll: NJ parents say social media is bad, but they’re not watching their kids

Most adults in New Jersey would support a warning label that appears when kids open up social media platforms on their devices, according to a poll out of Fairleigh Dickinson University.

The same poll suggests a majority of New Jerseyans believe social media is bad for young people, but they don't know why.

The poll, released on Nov. 18, found big differences between parents and non-parents — and maybe not in the way that you'd expect.

Compared to respondents without kids, parents in the survey were less likely to say that social media use is bad for young people's mental health. They're also less likely to believe that social media use can lead to substance abuse problems.

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“I think we’re seeing a lot of motivated reasoning with how parents view social media,” said Dan Cassino, poll director. “Parents have to be less likely to think social media is bad for kids, because if it was bad for kids, they’d have to do something about it."

According to the FDU poll, parents aren't doing much monitoring of their kids' social media usage. Forty-five percent of parents with children aged 12 to 25 say they don't monitor usage at all. Just 26% say they monitor "occasionally" or "frequently."

In the poll, 77% of New Jersey adults said they would support a warning label requirement for social media, an idea floated by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy earlier this year.

Sixty percent of people in New Jersey say that social media is generally bad for young people.

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