'Children having online sex chats'
Updated on 17 July 2008
Almost half of children have lied about their web activities, with 11 per cent having sexually explicit conversations online, a survey has shown.
The annual Mobile Life poll of 6,000 adults and children for Carphone Warehouse showed youngsters often pretend to do homework when they are surfing the net or visiting social networking sites.
And it found 87 per cent of parents believed they were fully aware of the content their children accessed on the internet, while 86 per cent were confident their children would not do anything they disapproved of.
But more than a quarter of 11 to 18-year-olds, or 28 per cent, had visited adult websites while 27 per cent of young people had interacted with strangers and 10 per cent had met up with someone in person that they originally found while surfing.
One in seven UK children, 14 per cent, admitted to having felt uncomfortable in online situations while one in three, 33 per cent, admitted they would be in trouble if their parents knew what they were looking at.
Most parents had not checked their children's internet history, but 26 per cent of those who had found something they were unhappy with. A tenth of parents said their children had reported worrying web incidents.
Despite parents' concerns about safety, more than half of youngsters, 55 per cent, said the internet had vastly improved their life and access at home was as essential as a fridge or cooker.
TV psychologist Dr Tanya Byron, who contributed suggestions to the report to help parents discuss the internet with their children, said: "I think the key is for parents to treat the issue of online safety in the same way that they would approach other potential danger areas.
"Would you let your children learn how to cross the road via trial and error? No, you teach them the Green Cross Code. Now, with the increasing importance of wireless technology and the role it plays in our children's lives, we must all learn and teach the Online Safety Code."
Her suggestions include parents learning how to set privacy settings on home computers, telling children never to give details to strangers and to limit personal data on social networking sites and teaching children how to report abuse or offensive material.
© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.
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