Sneaky Web Surfers

Survey reveals teens are masters of digital deception and look up sex online

If you've had a talk with your children about the dangers of the Internet, you probably felt like they were listening. A new McAfee survey says otherwise. The Internet security company found that while 71 percent of parents believe they've discussed proper online behavior with their children, only 44 percent of youth ages 10 and up agree.

"Our youth are engaging in all kinds of unsafe behavior without the benefit of understanding how their actions will affect their lives,” Michelle Dennedy, chief privacy officer at McAfee, said in statement.

Tweens may not remember having conversations about Internet safety, but they certainly know how to cover their tracks. The study says that 58 percent of youth know how to hide their online activities from their parents, and about 25 percent clear their browser history to do just that.

The McAfee survey found that 58 percent of youth know how to hide online activities from their parents.

And just what are they hiding from Mom and Dad? McAfee found that 57 percent of youth ages 13 and up are searching for information on sexual topics. Beyond their curiosity about the birds and the bees, teens and tweens spend most of their time on social media sites.

Facebook leads the way (86 percent) followed by Twitter (59 percent) and Instagram (46 percent). Pinterest, Tumblr and Snapchat rounded out the top five most popular social media sites for youth. When using these sites, the majority of teens believe it is safe to post their email address and other personal information.

The survey found that parents continue to be in the dark about virtually every aspect of their child's Internet use. Most parents believe that teens are online about one or two hours a day (the reality is five or six hours), and 62 percent of parents think that their children can't get into trouble online.

In actuality, 48 percent of youth say they have viewed a website their parents would not approve of, and about 22 percent of children ages 10 and up use their cellphone to hide unsavory Internet activity from Mom and Dad. Perhaps most telling, almost 50 percent of youth would change their online behavior if they knew their parents were watching.

"While it is not necessarily surprising that teens are rebelling online and hiding activity from their parents, what is concerning is the kinds of behaviors they are engaging in and that it extends to tweens," Dennedy said. "The onus really is upon the parents to accelerate their digital savvy and be actively engaged on educating their kids about how to live safely online."

Almost 50 percent of youth would change their online behavior if they knew their parents were watching.

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Almost 50 percent of youth would change their online behavior if they knew their parents were watching.

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Jobs report

Texas ranks among 10 best states to find a job, says new report

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

You have a better chance of landing a job in Texas than in most other states.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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