The Factors Influence Intention to Use Parental Control Software Among Malaysian Parents: The UTAUT Model

Parental controls are a method of controlling who has access to smart devices because individuals may regulate who else in their family members, particularly younger ones, sees inappropriate websites. Indeed, parental control software provides the ability to select which applications are permitted on online devices, and it may also be used to see content loaded as well as the purpose of device usage among parents towards their child, particularly for educational purposes. In actuality, Malaysian parents have little desire to employ parental control software to monitor their children's gadget activities, particularly for educational purposes. Hence, the primary aim of this research is to ascertain the factors that impact the intention of Malaysian parents to utilize parental control software. The study employs four key variables: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating control. Employing a quantitative methodology, the investigation gathers 374 responses through a Google Form survey. The data is subsequently analyzed using SPSS 22.0 and SmartPLS 4.0. The results indicate that both social influence and facilitating control significantly influence the intention to use parental control software. These findings hold the potential to inform government agencies and parental control software developers about the crucial role these two factors play in the development of effective parental control software solutions.