Parents using Facebook to "spy" on children at university, says government

A government survey has shown that parents are increasingly embracing the world of modern technology in order to stay connected with their undergraduate offspring.

Facebook has become one of the most popular means of keeping in touch, with parents opening up their own accounts and making "friends" with their children in order to keep tabs on their lives whilst away from home.

A poll of 1,000 parents by the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills revealed that 75 per cent of them believe Facebook, texting and Skype are the best means of contacting their kids.

Students on Facebook have been fighting back with groups such as "Ban parents from Facebook – Facebook is for students not parents!" being created.

The group goes so far as to demand Facebook be once again closed off to non-students.

Student Lily Goldberg, 17, told The Guardian: “It’s like having them walk into my room.”

It is not only Facebook that has been used by parents to keep in touch with their children, with web cams and blogging being used to stop students completely "flying the nest."

The survey has broken down the areas of the country in which the greatest percentage of parents are using this technology to contact their children.

Parents living in Worcester have most readily embraced social networking, with 83 per cent "friending" their student children, compared with only a third of parents from Bristol.

In Norwich, 92 per cent of parents use some form of technology to reach their children, as do 85 per cent in London and Sheffield.

The higher education minister, David Lammy, said: "With record numbers of young people going to university, more and more families are using new ways of communicating to stay connected with their children whilst away from home.”