Children admit online sex chats
Updated on 17 July 2008
More than one in 10 UK children have had sexually explicit conversations online, according to a report.
More than a quarter of 11 to 18-year-olds (28%) have visited adult websites, while 11% of the same age group had been involved in explicit chats.
The annual Mobile Life survey for the Carphone Warehouse found 27% of young people had interacted with strangers online and 10% had met someone in person that they originally met on the internet.
The poll of 6,000 adults and children in the UK and the US found one in seven UK children (14%) admitted to having felt uncomfortable in online situations.
It revealed that half of UK children (49%) lie to their parents about what they are doing online, often pretending to do homework when they are surfing the net or on social networking sites.
One in three (33%) admitted they would be in trouble if their parents knew what they were looking at online.
The study found a significant difference between what parents thought their children were doing online and the reality.
The majority of parents (87%) believed they were fully aware of the content their children accessed online, while 86% were confident their children would not do anything they disapproved of.
Most had not checked their children's online history, but 26% of those who had found something they were unhappy with.
A tenth of parents said their children had reported worrying online incidents. Despite parents' concerns about online safety, more than half (55%) said the internet had vastly improved their life and access at home was as essential as a fridge or cooker.
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