“Internet Predators, Privacy, Porn: Are parents concerned?”

The C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health surveyed over 1,000 parents about their concerns with their children’s use of the Internet, including those regarding sexual predators, online games, gambling and cyber bullying. Research suggests that about 1 in 7 children between the ages of 10 and 17 have received sexual solicitation over the Internet and about 1 in 3 children have been exposed to sexually explicit material.

According to the survey, 81 percent of parents report that their children, ages 9 to 17, access Web sites without adult supervision. Nearly two-thirds of parents whose children go online say that they are concerned about online sexual predators. Similarly, about two-thirds of those parents worry about a loss of privacy, and about one-half worry about their children viewing pornographic material. The study suggests that parents of girls who go online have different concerns than parents of boys, and black parents express more Internet safety concerns than white or Hispanic parents.

Read the report.