Many parents believe social media is hampering their child's moral development, a survey has revealed.

The survey suggests the majority of parents do not think these sites are a positive influence on a young person's character, while some are concerned about the negative impact they can have.

About 55 per cent of the 1,700 people with children aged 11 to 17 who participated strongly agreed that social media hinders or undermines a child or teenager’s moral development.

Not all social media is considered a bad influence, with around one in six agreeing that popular social media sites could have a positive impact.

Social media is not going away, so by learning more about this relationship we should be able to maximise the benefits of social media use and avoid the pitfalls.- Dr Blaire Morgan

In addition, 40 per cent of those polled said they were concerned or extremely concerned about the potentially damaging impact social media could have on children.

"There are some surprising findings in the poll, not the least the low level of agreement that social media can enhance or support a young person's character or moral development,” researcher Blaire Morgan said.

"Whilst parents acknowledged that positive character strengths, including moral virtues such as love, courage and kindness, are promoted through social networking sites, they were reluctant to agree that these sites could have a positive impact on their child's character," she continued.

The survey, which asked parents about their own use of social media, asked mums and dads which negative traits or vices they see on these sites at least once a month. The poll is part of an ongoing study by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at Birmingham University.

Three in five (60 per cent) said they had seen anger and hostility, followed by arrogance (51 per cent) ignorance (43 per cent) bad judgment (41 per cent); and hatred (36 per cent).

But almost three-quarters said they saw content containing a positive message at least once a day.

"The Jubilee Centre's parents and media project seeks to explore the relationship between social media and virtues in more depth, and hopefully offer a more constructive outlook on how social media might impact on a person's character and moral values,” Dr Morgan said.

"Social media is not going away, so by learning more about this relationship we should be able to maximise the benefits of social media use and avoid the pitfalls."

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.