Stumble It!It's a great big world out there on the Internet. And much of it offers a terrific educational opportunity for our kids. But then there's the not-so-kid-friendly side...
Are your kids seeing porn on the Web?
Do you know what your kids are checking out online? Do they have a computer in the bedroom, where it's harder to monitor what they're up to?
An alarming percentage of kids and teens are being exposed to porn on the internet, mostly through accidental viewing while surfing the Web, according to researchers at the University of New Hampshire.
They conducted a telephone survey of 1,500 Web users ages 10 to 17 (with the parents’ consent). Forty-two percent of the kids said they had seen online pornography in a recent 12-month span. Sixty-six percent of those said they had not been searching for those images. Most of the kids who reported unwanted exposures were ages 13 to 17. But a fair number of 10- and 11-year-olds also had unwanted exposures — 17 percent of boys and 16 percent of girls.
More than a third of 16- and 17-year-old boys surveyed said they had intentionally visited pornographic sites in the past year. For girls that age, the figure was 8 percent.
A generation ago, kids grabbed a peek at a Playboy magazine now and then. Today, the stuff they can potentially run across on the Web is mind-boggling — and could be pretty damaging.
Clearly, we don't want our kids to have unlimited, unmonitored access to the Web. They need us to keep a watchful eye.
