The data from parent–child pairs fit into four possible categories based on reports of each of the four
behaviors. Parents either had accurate perceptions that a risky online situation had previously occurred
(both the parent and the child reported that the behavior has happened at least once), underestimated
a risky online experience (the parent indicated that it has never happened, while the child indicated the
behavior has happened at least once), had accurate perceptions it did not happen (both the parent and
the child reported that the behavior has never happened), or overestimated a risky online experience
(the parent reported that the behavior has occurred while the child indicated that it has not). The
frequency of classification is presented in Table 1.
The primary focus of this paper is on the two groups where the child admitted to engaging
in the behaviors in question (see ‘‘Agree Happened’’ and ‘‘Parents Underestimate’’ in Table 1). To
this end, we aim to compare households where parents are unaware of their child’s experiences
to households where parents report accurate perceptions. In other words, in both groups, the