WebProNews

A new study finds that parents have become more conflicted in their view of the Internet and how it relates to their children.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project said that about 59 percent of Americans with children between the ages of 12-17 believe the Internet is a positive influence on their offspring. That is an 8 percent drop from 67 percent in 2004.

In 2006, 30 percent of parents of online teens said they did not think the Internet had any effect on their children compared to 25 percent in 2004. Parents with high levels of education are more likely to think that email and the Internet have been beneficial for their children than parents with less education.

The majority of parents stay involved with their teen's online lives. Sixty-five percent of parent's say that after their child has been online, they investigate to see what Web sites they visited. Seventy-four percent of parents can identify if their teens have created a profile on social networking sites that others can see such as MySpace and Facebook.

Parents are more concerned about the content their children view online than the amount of time they spend on the Internet. Sixty-eight percent of parents say they have rules about the kinds of sites their kids can visit along with rules about the information they share with people they talk to on the Internet.