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Technology creates headache for American parents raising teens

CBS News contributor and Republican strategist Frank Luntz brought together 17 parents to discuss the state of the American family
Family in focus: New challenges facing parents and children 07:04

According to recent Pew research, 95 percent of teenagers use the Internet, 78 percent have a cellphone and 74 percent access the Internet on mobile devices.

While the data might not be shocking, what a group of parents had to say about experiences with their own kids sheds light on the difficulties raising Generation Z. CBS News contributor and Republican strategist Frank Luntz brought together 17 parents to talk about the state of the American family.

"Too many distractions," one parent said. "For one, between iPads and TV and cell phones, there's just so much to try to keep hold of. Technology's good for the most part but not in the hands of children."

A significant portion of the group also believed children act as if their digital connections are more important than familial relationships.

"They interfere with family life, because my daughter, she wants to do 'this, this, this' and not do anything with 'me, me, me.' And it irritates me that, you know, her Facebook page is more important ...than family life," one father said.

The make-up of the group was diverse, but the parents unanimously agreed on one topic in particular -- they all believed it's harder raising their kids now than it was for their parents.

"I think it's hard to battle a narcissistic society that is teaching my child to think about themselves and no one else," one mother said.

They also discussed the challenges of single parenting.

"It's pretty hard because you have to, I mean, the father's one thing, but you do have to have certain types of sensibilities 'cause, I mean, she's of the opposite sex. You have to have certain type of sensibilities in that area there," one father said.

"There are certain things that a woman needs to learn from a woman and a man needs to learn from a man," one woman added.

Unsurprising to Luntz, the discussion became heated when the participants brought up issues of race.

"We are one America. Black America's problem is America's problem, so that's my biggest issue with this whole conversation, number one," one mother said. "Number two, we do need to work on building families as a whole."

The parents also voiced fears that their children will have a poorer quality of life than they did.

"I think home ownership is going to be out of the question for most of our kids in this room. I think taxation, the way, the decline of government, the way that it's heading -- we used to be an exceptional country," one father said. "We have leaders now who don't believe in American exceptionalism. And I think our kids are gonna have a much rougher time than we did."

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