A study carried out for National Family Week has revealed that 20% of parents think that the best place to find what their children do is on social networking sites.
To track their children, parents have to send at least 600 texts, 312 emails and spend over 1500 minutes on the phone every year, found the survey.
However, the report also said that among the 5000 parents surveyed, more than half said that mobile phones and online networking "overly preoccupied" their children.
Nick Henry, of National Family Week, said, "Having to contact your children and immediate family through texts, emails and social networking sites to track them down is just a consequence of modern life."
One-sixth of the respondents said that texting responsible for the negative impact on family life.
More than a third banned mobile phones and laptops at the dinner table, found the study.
Henry said, "It could be argued that 20 years ago it would be harder to keep track of the family throughout the day as so few of us were contactable like we are now.
"Advances in technology have had other advantages, such as allowing families to communicate over long distances, brought young and old together and helped to prevent feelings of isolation."
