npower Reveals Parents Fear of Gadget Takeover

Released on: June 20, 2011, 5:11 pm
Author: npower
Industry: Energy

Npower has revealed that Parents fear they are being replaced by gadgets in their children's lives, new research by the energy supplier has found.

Almost half (46%) of the parents taking part in the study said communication with their children has been affected by technology.

A third (34%) admitted they had to compete with games consoles and online social networking for their children's attention and over a quarter (28%) feel redundant and hurt by the lack of involvement in their child's life.

Evaluating the findings, psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos said families should "spend time together doing face-to-face activities".

She said: "Just an hour a day interacting as a family can boost confidence and improve verbal communication.

"Because this level of technology was not present when we were growing up, it's important to use it in a way that enriches our family life as opposed to using it to the detriment of other ways of communicating with each other."

The research was carried out nationwide and 1,000 parents and 1,000 children were involved.

Energy company npower commissioned it in support of its No Power Hour campaign, a UK-wide roadshow hosted by ex-England manager Kevin Keegan. No Power Hour will see Keegan encourage families to save energy by spending more time together in the open air.

The study also found that half of all children (51%) spend up to five hours a day glued to a screen and more than a quarter (27%) prefer to communicate digitally rather than face to face, while one in four prefer playing on an X-Box console to spending time with their family.

About npower:
npower is one of the top business energy suppliers to the UK business market, serving over 238,000 small to medium sized enterprise sites and around 17,000 industrial and commercial customers, with over 100,000 sites with business gas and business electricity.

npower Industrial and Commercial Markets is an award-winning business energy supplier. In 2010 it was named 'The Consumer Supplier of the Year' at The Energy Event and was also awarded 'Energy Supplier of the Year' at the inaugural Energy 'Buying & Supplying Excellence' Awards. Both awards were voted for by business customers.

npower specialises in risk management solutions, including market-leading flexible energy purchasing, green energy, energy efficiency, and broader energy management functions, tailored to every size of business.

For major energy users, npower offers multi-utility management consultancy to help organisations to improve efficiencies right across the procurement/consumption chain.

npower are proud sponsors of The npower Football League, including The npower Championship, npower League 1 and npower League 2 commencing July 2010. It also offers a Football Saver energy tariff.

npower customers include BT, Wembley Stadium plc, AstraZeneca and Sainsbury's.

PR Contact:
Nicholas McHugh
npower
Oak House
1 Bridgewater Road
Worcester
WR4 9FP
0845 070 2807
www.npower.com

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