While American youth spend more time online than kids elsewhere do, they are also more likely to have their parents monitor what they see and set limits on where they go, according to research on Internet usage among teens and young adults in 16 countries by Ipsos-Reid . Still, the research discovered wildly varying approaches among parents around the world when it comes to supervising Internet usage. The European approach to parenting is generally much more open and you can see this behavior online as well. The interesting paradox in North America is that while most parents pay for their kids' Internet access, they're far more likely to restrict or monitor what sites they visit.
Parents here exhibit both liberal and puritan behaviors.
It's like taking your kid to a candy store, but telling them what to choose. In the US, about 40 percent of the respondents report some form of Internet time or content limits, the second-highest level among the 16 countries surveyed. Americans are also much more likely than youth in other countries to have restrictions on what sites they can visit and report that their parents have installed filtering software on their home computers. The 12 to 17 age group face far greater restrictions than do young adults aged 18 to 24. The percentage of teenagers under 17 who report some form of limitation on what they can see jumps to 52 percent, compared to 18 percent for 18 to 24-year olds.